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S T U D I A T H R A C I C A 11

Ruzha Neykova

S H A M A N H O O D

A N D T H E B U L G A R S

Professor Marin Drinov Academic Publishing House

 This monograph examines the curious subject of shamanhood, a subject that is still
problematic in Bulgarian science. It is problematic because some historiographers and CONTENTS
art historians, who lack sufficient first-hand knowledge of traditional rites in the present
and erstwhile Bulgarian lands, have declared "beyond doubt" that the Bulgars (and the
Thracians) had shamans... If the curious, and informed, reader accepts this to be true,
then he or she is bound to consider the question of how could the so-called animism/
animatism have possibly "coexisted" with submound and overground temple struc-
tures, with the ideology of statehood and the state, which requires a God with a retinue
of his likes, and not a cohort of spirits... The question of whether the Bulgars had
shamans is one of the possible approaches to the inherited ethno-cultural memory.

The publication of this book has been financed by the Stichting Horizon Foundation, ADISTURBING READ FOR ARMCHAIR SHAMAN-LOVERS. Introduction
Holland
by Prof. Dr. Alexander Fol 15

PREFACE II

SHAMANHOOD/SHAMAN/SM / l l
Classical Territories and Beliefs / 1 1
Rites and Concepts / 30
Untugun and the "Music" of Shamans / 5 0

B A C K T H R O U G H T I M E / 84
Perke / 8 4
Sound and Ritual Along the Route of the Bulgars / 1 1 2
Tura/Teiri/Tangra: Dues inActu 1137
On VeshterstvofWitchcmft and Shamanhood: Differences and Possible Parallels /187
Prof. Marin Drinov Academic Publishing House
www.baspress.com APPENDIX/207

ISBN 978-954-322-306-0
ABBREVIATIONS / 2 3 1
© Ruzha Neykova
REFERENCES / 2 3 2
© Konstantin Jekov, cover design
© Katerina Popova, translator
INDEX / 2 5 3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any means, electronic, mechanical, photo copying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Printed in Bulgaria, January 2009

w

A DISTURBING READ
FOR ARMCHAIR SHAMAN-LOVERS

To my Finnish A new volume of Studia Thracica, the monograph series of the Institute of
colleapup? Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, is an appropriate occasion
to wish the book every success, but does not obligate the editorial board to in-
troduce it with a preface. This introduction, however, is prompted by three un-
usual distinctive features of the text in question.
The first is obvious from the very beginning of the book, where a quote
notes that "North American Indians and'Inuits are, for their part, worried about
literature that describes North American culture in- shamanistic terms". I hope
that what is worrying North Americans will also begin to worry Bulgarian read-
ers, connoisseurs and experts who, at least until now, have quite thoughtlessly
allowed the history and culture of the ancient Bulgars, and even of their contem-
porary "folkloric heirs" as revealed through relicts in traditional folk culture, to
be described in shamanic terms. Shamanic terminology is equally, but ground-
lessly, aggressive both in the form of shamanhood, i.e. of a possibly ascer-
tainable Arctic religiosity, and under the cloak of shamanism, i.e. of a structur-
alist theory of spiritual universality.
The second distinctive feature of the book is connected with the one men-
tioned above and contains the reasons why the Institute of Thracology has in-
cluded this monograph in its series. These reasons are associated both with the
factual material and with its successful methodological use to support the thesis
that shamanhood is not a religious practice and set of beliefs of the Thracians,
and that the latter cannot be treated as objects of the theory of shamanism. In this
way the old but constantly forgotten conclusion that "there were and are no sha-
mans in Europe" is validated, with the addition that those who see them in their
armchaired offices must keep them locked up there.
The mention of offices brings me to the third distinctive feature of this
book: the fascinating field studies conducted by Senior Research Fellow Dr.
Ruzha Neykova. Following the imperatives of her own research, the author
found herself where no other contemporary Bulgarian researcher has ever been
- among those who continue to regard themselves as Bulgarian in the Volga Re-
gion. Forgotten by us because of the stubbornness of a wrong typologization of
"Bulgarians and non-Bulgarians", these people still carry their pre-Christian
 beliefs and customs, and hope that they will not end up in the company of sha- PREFACE
mans, sent there by some scholar.
The editorial board of this series presents this book within the framework
of the problematics of cultural-historical continuity in Southeast Europe and in
the Bulgarian lands, which is also one of the scientific and research priorities
of the Institute of Thracology.

Sofia, January 2003 Alexander Fol

Shamanhood has long been a subject of different theses and hypotheses, of

scientific forums in the international academic (and non-academic) community.
The world literature on shamanhood is impressive in scope and it is written in
different languages. It took m e many years to r e a d j u s t a small part of it. I am
grateful to have had the opportunity to work in foreign archives and libraries
and to hear the "sound" of shamanhood and the opinions of fellow researchers
who have toiled in the field for years. This has helped m e identify and structure
the different levels of the relevant problematics, the different lines of thought
and approaches towards shamanhood and shamans, and the motivation of aca-
demic debates (some of which have reached an enviable intensity), as well as
to judge the veracity of Bulgarian literature on the subject.
The attempts to find shamans among the ancient Bulgars (who supposedly
brought them from Asia), Thracians and Greeks go back more than a hundred
years and are, in m y view, a scientific anachronism. As an ethnologist and
ethnomusicologist, I disagree with those who find shamanism and shamanistic
elements in the traditional ethno-cultural heritage of the Balkans. This problem
is not just a local, i.e. Balkan, one. For years, the scopeof the phenomenon and
its specific dimensions have been a controversial point among scholars. As J.
Pentikainen (2001b: 509) writes, "The concept of ' s h a m a n i s m ' , first used in
English in the end of the 18th century is problematic." Within the academic com-
munity itself there is n o consensus on whether shamanhood exists outside Asia,
but this has not stopped some enthusiastic observers from discovering it in a
wide array of traditional cultures. In response, voices have been raised in de-
fence of the faded colour of their "traditional costume" against "shamanism". l

1
"[M]ost Africanists do not agree that shamanism exists in Africa, and even such a 'uni-
versalis!' as Eliade is a bit doubtful..." (Hultkranz 1988: 70). "North American Indians and
Inuits are, for their part, worried about literature that describes North American culture in
shamanistic terms... In the words of Ines M. Talamantez, an Apache professor of Religious
Studies at the University of California (Santa Barbara): 'They raped us by taking away our lan-
guage. Now they are stealing our religion by calling our medicine men shamans and by telling
stories about how you can become a shaman by taking drugs and beating a drum. Our language
does not know shamans, and that name is used only by neo-shamans; not our chanters'"
(Pentikainen 1998: 44).

LL
 Quite often elements that are just as typical of the rites of non-shamanic commu-
nities are identified as "specifically" shamanic in various publications, includ- other ethno-cultural circle which some people have suddenly decided was once
ing Bulgarian ones. While similarities in the rites and concepts in different tra- "ours". Until the first half of the first millennium BC, the Balkans were a politi-
ditions (or the so-called "ritual universals") can of course be compared by ev- cal and ideological entity that was part of the so-called Circumpontic cultural-
ery studious scholar, I hope this text will show that these similarities do not con- historical community. The term designates "the amazing similarity and unity" in
stitute the specificity of the phenomenon. Shamans per se simply do not exist. the development of cultures around the entire Black Sea (including of the
A n d claiming that shamanism exists "perse" is equivalent to saying that folk- Thracian civilizations) regarding their "ideological characteristics, economic
lore exists "perse". Fortunately, some authors' purported discovery of shama- structure, socioeconomic and socio-political structure" (IIopo^aHOB 1998:43-44:
nic structures in certain ethno-cultural heritages does not deprive shamanhood with References, see chapter "Perke"). The various ethnic formations built their
itself of its uniqueness and own profile, of its territorial dimensions, of its destiny in the subsequent epochs by transforming but also preserving this ancient
" p r o t o - " and neo-forms, of its history... basis. The latter probably accounts for the many similarities in the rites and beliefs
in the contemporary cultural heritages on the territory of the erstwhile Circumpontic
The questions of what is shamanhood, where does or did it exist and when,
community. My experience as an ethnologist and ethnomusicologist in the folk-mu-
inspired me to write this book in 2003 precisely for Bulgarian readers for whom
sical "field" has taught me to be very careful when dealing with one of the funda-
the subject remains, I would say, quite vague. This is entirely understandable not
mental problems of rites: the multi-layered dimensions and transformations of
just because of the foreign, incomprehensible term but primarily because of the
different "principles" and conceptions inherited over thousands of years. Any-
fact that shamanhood does not have an equivalent in Bulgarian traditional cul-
one who "leafs through" the folk ritual tradition is bound to get lost at some
ture to which it can be compared in any way. That is why the* first three chapters
of this book are informative, and their content is well-known to my fellow-re- point in the labyrinth of "who's who". This conundrum also faces every scholar
searchers on the subject. English-speaking readers who are familiar with the of Asia, regardless of whether he or she is exploring the territories of classical
phenomenon will probably find the second part more interesting, as it presents shamanhood or the spiritual realms of some sophisticated doctrine.
the contents of ancient Bulgarian religiosity which has survived to date in the Shamanhood is a phenomenon born of the tradition and worldview of a
form of folk beliefs and an ancient substratum. Precisely folk rites - as a faith- particular society. N o research undertaking on the subject can be correct with-
behaviour, not as an "official" religion 2 - are a reliable point of reference ini out knowledge of the spiritual and social context of "shamanic" communities.
examining the ancient spiritual values of a community or people. The problem This assumption underlies this text, which focuses on the ritual and sound traits
of whether there are or aren't shamanic elements in the inherited Bulgarian folk of the so-called "classical" Siberian shamanhood. The specificity of the phe-
tradition, which is a synthesis of the spiritual legacies of ancient ethno-cultural nomenon is examined from different perspectives with the help of already es-
communities, belongs to the same sphere (of the ancient Bulgarian state ideol- tablished, conceptualized and discussed characteristics. Their repetition is un-
ogy and ritual system). This also holds for the indigenous ritual heritage of the avoidable and more than necessary - and, moreover, in the form in which they have
Balkans, where according to the official view the Bulgars founded their succes- been recorded in field studies and descriptions. My interpretation of them and
sive state in the seventh century AD. knowledge of the Bulgarian ritual system informs my personal view, which I have
deliberately formulated as a question. I always write the preface last. This gives
Hereinafter the terms Balkans and Bulgars refers primarily to the
me a last opportunity to ask myself if I h a d at least one good reason for writing
Balkans and to the Bulgarians in ancient times. The behaviours of faith and,
my text. In this particular case, it would be enough for me if my book makes at
culture (including the stratification of society and the worldview conceptions
least one reader think about the question: Did the Bulgars have shamans?
determining the particular value systems and statehood) in these lands can be
traced from archeological findings and historiographic sources as far back as
the second half of the fourth millennium B C (to which the Varna Necropolis has
This book is the result of research projects of the Institute of Folklore at the
been d a t e d - A n . OOJI 1997: 86). This archaeological and historiographic situ-
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Department of Music Anthropology at
ation needs to be re-examined, especially when looking for connections with an-
the University of Tampere, Finland. It would have been impossible without the
help and support of my Finnish colleagues, my colleagues from the Institute of
2
The term faith-behaviour is derived from the concept of "culture seen as historically Folklore and the Institute of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences,
active behaviour ... and faith-rites" - OOJI AJI.1986: 30; 1995:18 (emphasis added); for
more on the history of culture as a "history of ideas" and on culture as a form of "behaviour and my translator, Katerina Popova.
of its carriers determined by their gradually established value system", see OOJI AJI. 1997: M y special thanks go to the Stichting Horizon Foundation, Holland, which
101. financed my field studies in the Northern Caucasus and the Volga Region.
8
 SHAMANHOOD/SHAMAN/5M

CLASSICAL TERRITORIES AND BELIEFS

Shamanhood, in its traditional authentic form, is found in unstratified

hunter-gatherer communities. The territories where ethnologists have identified
the so-called "classical form" 1 of shamanhood and where there still are sea-
sonal nomadic communities are located in Siberia and parts of Middle Asia.
Siberia occupies an area of 13,488,500 square kilometres (from the Urals in the
west to the Atlantic in the east; from the Arctic Circle in the north to a northern
latitude of approximately 50 degrees in the south - to Northern Kazakhstan in-
cluded, Tuva and the Altai Mountains, Mongolia and Northeastern China) and
is divided into three vast geographical regions. Western Siberia lies between
the Ural Mountains and the Yenisey River; Central Siberia encompasses the
land between the Yenisey and Lena rivers; Eastern Siberia extends from the
Lena River to the Pacific coast. The etymology of the n a m e "Siberia" remains
uncertain. 2 The territory of Siberia has always been characterized by a low
density of population and great ethnic diversity. At present, it is inhabited by
more than thirty peoples speaking different languages from the Palaeo-Asiatic,
Altaic and Indo-European language groups. Western Siberia is the home of
peoples such as the Evenk, Selkup, Ket, Chulym, Kyzyl, Beltir and Shor, and the
mainly Finno-Ugric Mansi/Vogul, Khanty/Ostyak, Nenets/Samoyed, and Komi. 3
The northern parts of Central Siberia are populated by the Yakut, Nganasan and
Dolgan; to the south, a large area is inhabited by the Ket, E v e n k and Yakut, fol-
lowed further southwards by the Tofalar, Buryat, Tuvan and other peoples. The
population of Eastern Siberia, from north to south, is m a d e up of the-Eskimo,
Chukchi, Koryak, Yukaghir, Itelmen, Yakut, Even, Trans-Baikal and A m u r
Evenk, Oroch, Udege, Nivkh and others. The extreme northeastern portion of
Siberia is inhabited by the Eskimo, who live on the Arctic coast of the Chukotka

1
For the justification and meaning of the term "classical shamanism", see also Grim
1983: 33-34.
2
For the different versions and interpretations of the name, see Ojiex 2001: 5-6. All
data on the population, ethnic groups and their migrations here and below are from SIBERIA,
Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001; Krupnik 1996; Alekseyenko et al. 1998;
Onex 2001, and others.
3
The Finno-Ugric peoples have "inner and outer names (i.e. how they call themselves,
and how others call them)" (Lazar 1997: 241). The first names listed here are their endonyms
(Mansi, Khanty, Nenets).

11
Peninsula. T h e largest ethnic group here are the Chukchi (from chauchu or "rich
in reindeer"), who probably originate from the territories around the Sea of
Okhotsk. T h e Chukchi and the Koryak are kindred peoples with similar histo-
ries, languages and traditions. The Yukaghir once inhabited a large part of north-
eastern Siberia; almost assimilated over the centuries by the expanding Even,
Yakut and Chukchi, they are now confined to the valley of the K o l y m a River.
The E v e n k and the Even are the largest ethnic groups in Eastern Siberia, occu-
pying a large area north of Lake Baikal, between the Yenisey River and the Sea
of Okhotsk. The southern portion of the Siberian Pacific coast (once part of the
ancient Chinese and Korean empires) includes the valley of the lower A m u r
River. Traffic and migration along the river led to the development of crop and
animal husbandry, metalworking and pottery in this vast eastern region.
A large group of the peoples of Central and Eastern Siberia (including the
Pacific coast) are known as Tungus. Because of their language (which belongs
to the Manchu-Tungus language family, also spoken in Northern China), they are
believed to be distantly related to the Turks and Mongols. The Tungus originally
inhabited the area between Lake Baikal and the upper A m u r River. Over the
centuries, they migrated northwards and deeper into the Siberian taiga, eventu-
ally splitting into three distinct groups. The most numerous group, which mi-
grated north and west of Lake Baikal, is known as the Evenk (numbering ap-
proximately 30,000 in present-day Russia and 20,000 in Northern China). Some
of the earliest evidence about Siberian shamans concerns precisely the E v e n k
and comes from the Russian priest Avvakum, who lived among them after he
was exiled as an Old Believer to Central Siberia in the mid-seventeenth century.
The Tungus w h o migrated east (towards the Kolyma River and the Sea of
Okhotsk) are known as the Even (now numbering approximately 17,000). Part
of the Tungus remained in the valley of the A m u r River, where they mixed with
other indigenous ethnic groups from inland Siberia (with Manchu, Nivkh and
probably Ainu from Sakhalin Island). With the exception of the Nivkh, all indig-
enous peoples along the A m u r River speak Manchu-Tungus languages and call
themselves Nani ("local people"). Today they are known as Nanai, Ulch,
Udege, Oroch, Negidal and others, and some of them live in China. Siberia is
also the home of a number of small peoples which can be found only in special-
ized demographic studies. Some of them are threatened with extinction because
of high mortality rates and assimilation by other peoples.
As a result of a number of socioeconomic and migration factors, the Sibe-
rian population has undergone different historical changes related not least to
the location of the different ethnic groups. The majority of them differ by origin,
language and culture but have a similar, nomadic and semi-nomadic, way of life
and livelihood. The main livelihoods in the forest belt (taiga, Yakut) and around The peoples of Siberia in the seventeenth century ( H c x o p H K O - a x H o r ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ . ' ^ ^ ^
the big rivers were and remain fishing, hunting and livestock breeding (reindeer,
cattle and horse breeding). In the traditional w a y of life of the Ostyak, for ex- V t - S ^
ample, families (each m a d e up of five to twenty people) live alone, migrating
over the year to spring, summer and winter settlements in order to subsist (Lazar
12
 , QQ7- 242) In Siberia, this way of life has existed for centuries. It was recorded
L r d e S r i b e d even by ,he first Russian colonizers back in the s.xteemh century.
S „ S ? n f V e a r s later some regions are still characterized mainly by ternto-
S J ' S S l ^ . ^ S i c t a l clan system, subsistence farmmg and very loose

S f f i S class; a large part of tts Y * < ^ . | ^ ™ ° £ £

here were i n S e d i a t e Variants of social stratification among s o m e peoples, m

a hierarchical "vertical" social stratification, only a family-clan one.

It is not by accident that shamanism in its most solid form developed in socjet-

(like Christianity, Buddhism, Islam etc.), based on pnests. (Gilberg 1984. 24)

This type of communities and their social specificity ^ e ^ t o f t e ^ de-

scribed in terms such as clan, tribe, ethnic group, P ^ ^ ^ ? ^
shamanhood, Grim (1983: 40) argues that it is precisely the tribal world view

^ o ^
a m b j u o u " i n d P L t e s J t although the # ™ ^ £ % ^ « ^
hood) belongs administratively to separate states ^ " ^ J X S o f
China, Russia), it is not a national product but part o f * e J ^ ^ e S e d by
numerous W / . s . This also accounts ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ t
contemporary studies - namely, that t h e classical d i m e n « o m a n d J " * ^
s h a m a n h o o d h a v e n o t t r a n s c e n d e d t h e i r family-clan a n d t r i b a l b o u n ^ r i e s ^

Map of Siberia i 1 the twentieth century

13
 Dingling) were formed there at that time, as well as in the first millennium A D
even an ethnic-based 4 - way of thinking and organization of society. Neither did
and later (for example, the Turkic Khanate which emerged in the mid-sixth cen-
they have a well-developed ritual system based on the annual calendar cycle
tury or the union^ of the Mongols in the thirteenth century). Such "centralized
(like the ritual systems based on the agricultural calendar on the Balkans) or
military-political unions" were short-lived; they usually broke up after the death
calendar-based Music genres (Music, i.e. from the Muses, designating a unity
of their founder or, in the best case, after the death of his closest successors
of music/speech/dance). Shamanhood as a traditional phenomenon is "oral-un-
(OOJI AJI. 1997: 124); because of the specificity of their organization, they
written ... it lacks any kind of holy scripts or books ... [as well as] a separate
evolved into "empires" by territorially subjecting other formations with a more
class of religious specialists (priests)" (Pentikainen 2001b: 508). This last is a
complex form of government, and with more diverse and advanced economies, j
field observation on Siberian classical shamanic societies. It must be borne in
Perhaps the most telling example of this is the so-called Mongol Empire, now •
mind because it is relevant to the following exposition as well as to the prob-
confined to some of the harshest lands in Middle Asia where nomadism still
lems related to the terminology and spread of the phenomenon itself. F r o m the
largely determines the local culture and way of life. T h e heroic image of the
different angle of their seasonal settlements, Siberian seasonal nomadic com-
"likes of Genghis Khan and his hoards", built for example in Hollywood, has
munities contemplated and conceptualized the Cosmos, the Divine Sky and
nothing to do with what Olekh (Onex 2001: 28-36) calls the "carriers of bar-
themselves as one, as a mutual manifestation of life and communion. Such unity
barism" from the thirteenth century who "disrupted the advance of a smoothly
with, and not differentiation from, the environment may be generally defined as
developing civilization", swallowing up and destroying some of the existing or
a way of life followed by all members of the community, none of whom had dis-
emerging state formations in Middle Asia and the West. ,
sociated themselves to observe and describe it from the side or from "above"
This brief ethno-demographic and political overview is relevant to the dif- j as a system of knowledge. All available data and descriptions of the different
ferent theories about the origin of shamanhood as well as to the different forms mytho-narratives c o m e from outside observers, mostly field researchers from
of its specific ethnic profile. Siberian shamanhood (especially "in the circum- the last two centuries. This situation is found elsewhere in the world as well.
polar-subarctic region ... practised by relatively small and isolated populations",
At the core of Siberian and Asian spiritual - demonological, mythic, doc-
Pentikainen 2001b: 508) remains a classic point of reference and basis for compari-
trinal and religious - life is the belief that all matter, both animate and inanimate,
son in many publications, especially in those tracing the development of similar
has a spirit. One of the terms for this is animism. 5 The dictionaries which frivo-
lines of the phenomenon from north to south, at the geographical centre of Asia as
lously define the term as a "primitive b e l i e f or a "belief of primitive peoples"
well as to the west and east of the latter. It is also a point of reference in studies on •
were most likely written by politicians, not by well-educated people. In older
controversial forms of shamanhood elsewhere on Earth and on the so-called syn- ,'
and more recent literature, phrases like "primitive religion" and "primitive
cretic forms in which scholars have identified a shamanic substratum transformed
peoples" are convenient for distinguishing between different communities: for
and conceptualized in a different, doctrinal or religious, context. Following the
example, between those that build skyscrapers (albeit temporarily) and physi-
concept of "classical shamanhood", this text will not deal with neoshamanism,
cally move through the skies, and those that contemplate the Cosmos spiritually
a subject that has received growing scholarly attention in recent years.
from their straw huts. It is precisely because of their belief in animism and ani-
Studies on Siberian classical shamanhood are widely used in analyzing and matism6 that the latter are aware that the World Order is resident in everything
reviewing a similar phenomenon on the American continent. It is believed that back
in ancient times Asia and North America were connected by a land bridge at what is
4
now the Bering Strait (Ojiex 2001: 25 and others). Hence, there is a "widely ac- The ethnos was a political formation in the ancient world; it is not to be confused
cepted hypothesis that Native American peoples emigrated from North Asia" (Grim with nation/nationality, which in its modern form is associated with a particular state formation
1983:34) and that the first settlers in Alaska came from Northeast Asia. The com- and the so-called national self-consciousness. For the meaning of ethnos and ethnic-based so-
ciety (ruled by an authoritarian ruler and a retinue of aristocrats) whose values and virtues are
mon features and similarities in the cultures of the two northern hemispheres have based on the norms of tradition, see OOJI B. 1998:146-148; OOJI. AJI. 2000: 3-48.
been pointed out repeatedly by a number of twentieth-century scholars. Etymologically and historically, the term animism comes from anima mundi = Soul
of the World, a power supposed to organize the whole universe and to coordinate its parts
(OTD); for the Pythagoreans, this is the "world soul"; in Egyptian and Hindu teachings, this
"Everything in the universe has spirit" is the "spirit". The doctrine of Taoism is based on the same concept: every thing in the world
has chi {ki for the Mongols), i.e. life force or spirit; there are two basic life forces in the
_ r - - -r
world, ying chi and yang ki. The material or phenomenal world is manifested through various
There is ample archaeological evidence that the ancient culture of the interactions of these two life forces, which generally ought to work in harmony.
6
Palaeo-Siberian peoples goes back two thousand years. It was created by non- For the difference between the two terms, see Hultkranz 1979: 483, 510. For more
literate communities that did not have a polity-based - or, in most cases, not on animatism as a "primary form of the animistic worldview", see UlTepH6epr 1936: 268.
14
15
 (Ejfflane 1995: 86,62-135). But I have a serious objection to the uncritical use
and everywhere and that It/The Cosmos can be perceived and understood only of the term God and the concept of a Supreme Sky God, especially when refer^
by the elect who humbly walk the earth. Over the centuries since the birth of the ring to the Arctic and North Asian territories. In many investigations and field
Buddha and Confucius (since the sixth century BC), the potential of animism has studies the terms god, deity and spirit are used as synonyms, which shows that
been developed and elevated in Asia to the highest doctrinal level on Earth. Its
the relevant terms and concepts are used without due consideration for the ideo-
roots are also preserved by some technologically' backward peoples whose
logical system within which they function. For example, according to a descrip-
rites, however, are far more complex than, say, eating turkey for Thanksgiving.
tion of the creation myths of the Buryat, "In the beginning ... there were only
S o m e interpret this animistic concept as part of an elaborate mythic system
celestial spirits, the Tengris ... the Tengris of the West, good gods [?], 8 and the
which many of the technologically advanced peoples from other continents have
Tengris of the East, who were evil beings [?]. ... T h e Tengris of the West cre-
never had. Animism and animatism are also a good starting point for introduc-
ated humans" (Massenzio 1984: 204). T h e belief in and appeals to the Sky in
ing the subject of shamanhood. But only for introducing it, as the belief in the
Itself (as an abstract and non-personified principle) are not coherent with other
vitality of substances is not* a "patent" of Asia - similar contents are found else-
doctrinal and theological concepts of God in sedentary agricultural communi-
where too.
ties - on the continent to the south and elsewhere.
There are different opinions about the essence and origin of the Celestial
Shamanhood is a folkloric phenomenon and it should therefore be inves-
Divine Being - as an originally existing being, as a historically later form of the
tigated as part of the traditional conceptual system of the relevant ethno-cultural
milieu. Most of the Siberian and Middle Asian peoples have the same or simi- belief that conceived it as an anthropomorphic being, and celestial phenomena
lar concepts of high and low deities, and of the so-called spirits; they have a as its "kin". T h e process whereby Deus otiosus functionally broke up into a di-
similar animistic and mythic basis of shamanhood itself. This is also manifest in vine progeny, into a "cult" of spirit mediators and other suchlike has been de-
the sphere of Tengriism. In Central, East and West Asia, the belief in Tengrf fined as a "progressive descent (of the sacred) into the concrete" (EjiHazte
encompasses and functions at different levels: from the idea of a single divine 1995:75,79). Based on his observations of the Koryak, Jochelson (1905-1908:
principle to the concepts of its different multiplications and theophanies. In 24) argues in favour of the opposite process of origination: from multiple "dei-
many parts of Siberia and Middle Asia, this is the name of the sky itself or of a ties'Vspirits to monotheism. Both views recognize that the divine sky was multi-
non-personified self-created divine principle, the spirit of the sky, which is as plied and concretized in other divine figures born of the concept that there is a
a rule eternal, beneficent, the Creator and Lord of the Universe. The concept of spirit in everything. The genealogy of the multiple tengri who are engaged in
the life-giving celestial force (including of the couple Sky - Earth) is also found kinship relations and a particular hierarchy between themselves is probably an
in later Manichean and Muslim texts. The Mongols still worship "the infinite expression of such personification as well.
blue sky" (kok tengri) in itself - as a non-personified omnipresent creator. In demonologies and in mythic concepts, the supreme god remains some-
A m o n g the Chukchi, benevolent "supernatural beings are called ... vairgit, i.e. where there, up high, in an independent and chronologically constant position
' b e i n g s ' . . . which Bogoras supposes to be merely vague and impersonal names above the Middle Asian horsemen riding through the centuries as well as above
of qualities. They represent a very loose and indefinite personification of the the complex and intertwined genealogy of the hierarchically ruling spirits.
creative principle of the world. ... Their names are ... Creator, lit. ' O n e w h o While the Sacred Sky keeps its perimeter as an inaccessible sacred form, the
induces things to be created', Upper-Being, World, lit. 'The Outer-One', Mer- ritual practices of shamanic communities (in Northern Siberia, in Mongol, in
ciful-Being, Life-giving Being, Luck-giving Being ... They live in twenty-two Turkic communities after the seventh century, and elsewhere) are addressed
different directions ... The chief of these beings is the one residing in the zenith, mostly to other, lower "deities" or, more precisely, "beings" which are not al-
which is called 'being-a-crown' ". (Czaplicka 1914, citing Bogoras) ways celestial in origin. For example, the Samoyed chief god, Nini (literally
"giver of life"), the Ruler of Earth and Heaven, never descends to the "unclean
This abstract supreme proto-image is known in science as Deus otiosus,
earth" but communicates with people only through the spirits, who for this pur-
rendered concrete in its identification with the sky and celestial phenomena
pose choose mediators - tadibey (shamans) - from among people (Islavin 1847:
109). The supreme deity of the Koryak (called World, Universe, Supervisor,
7
Known to the Altaians, Orkhon Turks, Tuvan, Kachin, Beltir as tengri, tengeri; to the The-Master-on-High) is assisted by Big-Raven, the first man and shaman among
Shor as tegri; to the Khakas as ter; to the Yakut as tangara; to the Mongols as tenger, tengri;
to the Buryat as tengeri, tengri; to the Kalmyk as tenger; to the Turks as tare; to the Kyrgyz
8
as tangri etc.; to the Tungus as tanara etc.; the name is also known from the age of the First Here and below, [?] or [?!] are inserted by the author (Ruzha Neykova, hereinafter RN)
Turkic Khanate (HeKJiioflOB 1982: 500-501). These names come from the ancient Sumerian to indicate an unclear, wrong, quasi-scientific use of a term or phrase.
Dingir (fourth-third millennium BC).
17
16
 the Koryak. It is from Big-Raven that people learned and received everything
Different peoples in Siberia and Middle Asia have similar mythic concepts
they need in life; Big-Raven is invoked in every rite and mentioned in tales and
about the stratification and three-tier vertical structure of the world. The
myths from Northeast Asia and along the entire Pacific coast (Jochelson 1905-
Upper and the Lower Worlds have a sun, moon, forests, human-like inhabitants
1908: 24). The Siberian peoples believe that it is precisely the spirits that are
and even shamans. In some tales the Upper World is very similar to this world,
mediators between humans and the supreme divine force. That is why almost-
but it is brighter because it has seven suns. It corresponds to the classical con-
all sacrifices and offerings are made to the spirits - because they are masters of
cept of an ideal world whose inhabitants live in the traditional ways of the an-
the directions, owners of the taiga, the mountains, the sea, fire, and so on. F o r '
cestors. The dwellers of the Upper and Lower Worlds are invisible in our
the Khanty and the Mansi in Western Siberia, the mediator between humans and'
the supreme deity is the spirit master of the sacrificial site who will dispatch middle world (but not to shamans), their presence being betrayed by a sudden
the soul of the sacrificed reindeer to the Highest One: 1 crackle in the fire or the sounds pf particular animals. The Samoyed believe that
the Lower World is darker because its sun and moon are half rather than full
Numi-Torum created the world and also ... the man. ... After the completion of | orbs. This is also depicted on shaman's drums. The concepts of the directions,
the acts of creation, he no longer meddles with further developments in the world. ..., of the hori7or : =al and vertical stratification of the Universe (most often at seven
Relatively little is known about him, andit is virtually impossible to contact him directly. levels - an earthly one, three upper and three lower levels) are linked to the
As such, he belongs to the long list of dei otiosi known all over the world. ... Numi- heavenly and earthly perimeter and power of the spirits. Waterways (rivers,
Torum dwells on the seventh floor of the upper world, too high to deal with the affairs lakes, the ocean) are their usual passages for travel between the' worlds. The
of mortals. ... Torum is inaccessible to common people and it is not possible to bring spirits, including tengri/tenger, have many common characteristics, functions,
sacrifices to him directly. ... Even shamans are unable to converse with him: the best and similar ethnonyms. Among the Buryat, tengri is the name of a good/light, of
of them only reached as high as the fifth heaven in their journeys.... If a person desires an evil/dark spirit, as well as of lightning. The Mongols believe that the stron-
to address Numi-Torum, he must do so through the mediation of some lower god.... In
gest of the nature spirits are the sky spirits tenger, w h o live at each of the four
the Khanty language, Torum is ... signifying also weather and the sky. ... Therefore,
when the name Torum is mentioned without epithets, it is sometimes difficult to decide cardinal directions: the right, western, tenger created man, the dog and all the
which deity is referred to... (Barkalaja 1997:2000) food animals, the greatest of them being Ulgen, son of Father Heaven and lord
of the spirits of the Upper World; the left, eastern, tenger created the animals
The invocation of deities and spirits in ritual practices is also based on the forbidden to eat, and the disease spirits; the greatest of the eastern tenger is
concepts of the cardinal directions, which differ in parts of Central Asia and Erleg Khan, brother of Ulgen and lord of the Lower World. The water spirits
Siberia. For the Turkic and some Tungus-Manchu peoples, the main direction of and their lord, Usan Khan, are invoked from the southern/front direction; the
movement is sunwise: east is front/celestial/light/good, west is back/under- lord of lightning and thunder is Keiden (Tatai Tenger), who is invoked from the
ground/dark/bad. "The Yakut division of the universe is mainly horizontal, com- i northern/back direction. In this cosmogony, the underworldly is associated with
prising two parts - east and south, the habitation of good spirits, and west and north, , the eastern and the northern, and the heavenly with the western and the southern.
of evil spirits. The great evil spirit Underground-Old-Man, lives in the far north" ' According to the belief of the Altaians, the good spirits, w h o are subjects of
(Czaplicka 1914). The beliefs and behaviour of some Mongol and Chinese ' Ulgen, live in seventeen floors above the earth, while the bad spirits, ruled by
peoples follow another general orientation, the polar one: the world is oriented Erleg/Erlig, occupy seven or nine under it. The Buryat believe that the highest
in-the North —> South direction, to which the corresponding oppositions are back/ spirits, called tengeri/tengeriny, inhabit the sky. There are ninety-nine tengeri,
night - front/sun; the western side of the world is right/upper/male/celestial/white, divided into two groups: western and eastern. Those of the west, who predomi-
the home of the sky spirits tenger, the eastern side is left/lower/female/underground, nate in numbers (being fifty-five), are the good white tengeri; the eastern ones,
the abode of the Black Spirit and spirits of disease. These "assumptions" prede- known as black tengeri (forty-four in number), are mischievous and hostile to
9 humans, among w h o m they send misfortunes, quarrels, sickness, and death (af-
termine the alignment of yurts, of winter huts and their interior layout.
ter Czaplicka 1914). A m o n g all Siberian and Central Asian peoples, the most
venerated spirits are the white sky spirits. They are invoked in need, for protec-
9
Among the Mongols, the entrance of the yurt always faces south, which is front; the tion against evil and sickness, as protectors of the family and hunters, and as
most honourable place inside is the north side behind the fire, where shamans sit; the right, givers of life force to humans and animals, etc. A m o n g some Siberian peoples,
west, side (if we face south) is the male side; the left, east, side is the place for household the spirits inhabiting the different parts of the dwelling (for example, the spirit
objects, women and children. Movement in shamanic dances, worship, and rituals is
"sunwise" - from right to left - in a clockwise direction (Mongolian Shamanism - Introduc- of the fire/hearth), hunting deities, and other spirits are also known under the
tion 101. 1997). name of Tengri (Mongolian Shamanism - Introduction 101. 1997).

18
19
 According to the Mongols, the heavenly bodies and phenomena are con-;
crete manifestations and dimensions of Father Heaven (for example, the sun moon is waning or the snow is melting. The best time for community-wide sac-
and moon are the eyes of Tenger). The Koryak call the sun The-Master-on- rifices and prayers is during the last full moon of the year (usually in Decem-
High; the Ainu believe that there is a goddess of the sun, the special ruler of all ber), always in the daytime, before noon. If many animals are to be sacrificed,
good things in the Universe, and a goddess of the moon. Among the Chukchi, the the ceremony continues the next day. Unlike this tradition, in some parts of West-
sun, moon, stars, and constellations are known as vairgit (benevolent beings); ern Siberia such sacrifices are made in autumn or in spring (Leete 1997;
the sun is represented as a man clad in a bright garment, driving dogs or rein-
Barkalaja 1997,2000). The Northeastern Asian peoples (the Eskimo, Chukchi,
deer; although the moon is also represented as a man, he is not a vairgit but the
Ainu and others) have autumn, winter, spring and summer community-wide sac-
son of a kele, an evil spirit of the lower world (after1 Czaplicka 1914, with Ref-
erences). rifices, which are annual (for details, see Bogoras 1907: 368-401; Jochelson
1905-1908: 65-90). They are made mostly to the good spirits who will ensure
The Sacred Sky has sons and daughters - its envoys, who are invoked for successful hunting and fishing, and are also offered in thanksgiving after the
different purposes in rituals. The concept of the seven sons of the Sky is repre- hunting season. The ceremonies that are most important to these peoples are
sented, for example, in the sacrificial rituals of the Khanty, Mansi and Nenets, , those performed in autumn and at the beginning of winter. In Northeastern Asia,
in which the performers of the sacrifice turn themselves around, scream and these are the w h a l e - , b e a r - , wolf- and reindeer-festivals or feasts, which are
bow seven times, and toss the blood of the sacrificed animal in seven directions similar in form and functions (Czaplicka 1914, with References). The Yakut and
(Leete 1997). As a rule, only white animals (reindeer, horses), white cloth (the the Altaians also have spring and autumn sacrificial ceremonies - the former
Nenets offer a three-metre-long white cloth tied around the neck of the sacrifi- dedicated to the good and the latter to the malignant black spirits - at which the
cial reindeer), "white" coins are sacrificed to the Supreme Force and white sacrifices are made at night (Mikhailovski 1894: 63-67). According to Bogoras,
heavenly spirits. Only men take part in such rituals. Before they are sacrificed, the Chukchi sacrifice to the evil spirits kelet (with various monstrous forms)
the reindeer are untied and arranged in a line with their heads to the south - "to "animals which are born with any deformity ... the offerings to these are m a d e
the sun" and the white heavenly spirits. The skin of the reindeer together with at midnight, in darkness, and are never spoken o f (Bogoras 1907: 369-370;
the head and horns, the lasso and the white cloth are hung on or tied to a 292-298).
"white", "heavenly tree" that symbolizes the Upper World (Leete 1997). The
sacrificial sites are chosen depending on the hierarchy of the spirit to which the The deification of Mother Earth as a life-bearing being is a parallel (to the
sacrifice is offered: at a higher or lower location. As a rule, the Sacred Sky and
Sacred Sky) conceptual universal in Siberia and Middle Asia. Like the Sacred
white heavenly spirits are worshipped on a hill or peak (in the plain or moun-
Sky, Mother Earth or the spirit of Mother Earth is not conceived of in anthropo-
tains), near piles of stones.
morphic form, being personified by the mountains, streams, forests, cliffs and
The Turks and the Mongols also believe that the spirits ruling over the trees. Odd-shaped cliffs and trees are especially venerated, as they are believed
Middle and the Lower World are sons of the Sky. They sacrifice dark-coloured to be inhabited by a powerful spirit. The spirits of mountains and the spirit of
or black animals to the Lord of the Underworld. A m o n g some Finno-Ugric the forest are especially powerful and strongly venerated in all hunter-commu-
groups, H e is known as a "spirit of disease", "spirit of death", "the evil spirit" nities, including in the Far East. Every clan, and in some parts every settlement,
who can turn into an animal (such as a cat or dog). The sacrifices offered to Him has a sacred mountain with a spirit owner who is offered sacrifices. It is uni-
and to the underworld spirits are black reindeer and a piece of black cloth, versally believed that every mountain, hill, cliff and sometimes even parts of
which is spread on the ground; the skin of the reindeer (together with the lasso, these, i.e. that every feature of the landscape has its owner-spirit who can pro-
the head and the horns) is hung on a black tree (cedar in the case of the Nenets, tect those living or passing through it. On various occasions - for example, dur-
pine or spruce in that of the Khanty). Sacrifices t o the White Heavenly and the ing the clan's migration from one seasonal settlement to another - spirit owners
Black Underworld Lords are performed in different places, but the prayers to are placated by bloody or bloodless sacrifices. Every lake, river and spring
them are similar in content -r for a happy life and good health, for reindeer, for also has a spirit owner who is offered sacrifice before fishing (in the case of the
success in hunting or fishing, etc. Selkup, Tuvan, Kumandin, Ural and other peoples). All maritime peoples have
A m o n g the Siberian peoples, the large inter-clan and c o m m u n a l sacri- sea-deities who are offered sacrifices to secure a good catch. " S o m e of the
fices are linked to the cycle of the seasons. For them, as well as in many parts Koryak say that the ' o w n e r ' of the sea is a woman, and others consider the sea
of Middle Asia, winter j s the time when migrant and scattered families gather i n itself as a w o m a n " (Jochelson 1905-1908: 30).
c o m m o n settlements. They believe that sacrifices must not be made when the The Siberian and Middle Asian peoples have different female spirits
which have heavenly origins and similar functions. The Spirit of the Earth,
20

21
 which some believe is the daughter of Mother Earth and Father Heaven, is
known as Umai and Tenger Niannian, which comes from the Tungus word for the phenomenon in Central Asia and Southern Siberia. In the second millennium
earth/soil. She is worshipped as the womb goddess, protectress of childbirth AD, significant changes took place in these territories: formation of many of the
and children, and there is a wnnripr. f;~,.—*<-- peoples known today, expansion of the Mongol conquests, migration of Turco-
„ „ wuuni ngure or ner in the sacred corner of al Mongol groups in Middle Asia, including along the Ob, Angara, Yenisey, Irtysh,
berian settlements and huts. The Nenets place such a figure in the cradle of a Lena and other rivers. The migration of the Tungus ethnic groups in this period
newborn child, believing that the spirit of the Earth sends the child's soul is believed to have largely contributed to the spread and similarity of Central
(Alekseyenko et al. 1998: 167). Mother Earth and her daughter are also ap- Asian and-Siberian shamanhood.
- fertility. Czaplicka notes that among many peoples in Central Asia Mikhajlov uses the term "Central Asian shamanism" to designate shaman-
iuryat, Yakut._, Altainnc
~«.. u , Tn«.«..* T^J-
xu.guuL, iviaan,Kyrgyz, etc.) "there is one hood among the Turco-Mongolian peoples, which he describes as "a syncretic
general term for a woman-shaman, which has a slightly different form in each'
phenomenon" developed on the basis of animism, with a "very rich and multi-
tribe: utagan, udagan, udaghan, ubakhan, utygan, utiugun, iduan (duana);
genre oral literature and folklore". In his view, similarities in Central Asian
whereas the word for man-shaman is different in each of these tribes" (Czap-
licka 1914). These names, which come from Itugen/Mother Earth, actually at- shamanism are to be found in the ideas about the "supernatural" forces, in the
test to the semantic unity of "woman-earth" as well as to the concept that mythic concepts, in the "cult" of heaven, earth and water, in the worshipping of
women-shamans are "elect". particular animals, etc.; in the forms of collective and individual offering, in the
methods of divination, in the utilization of objects of the same type in ritual
Another high personage with common features in different territories is the
Mother/Spirit of Fire, who is also protectress of the family, childbirth and chil- practice, in funeral rites; in the system of training and initiating shamans, in their
dren. A red cloth and "white reindeer with the slightest red markings on their functions and accessories, in the teaching about the shamanic predestination; in
fur" are sacrificed to her (Barkalaja 2000). The Khanty believe that this spirit the terminology, i.e. the names of spirits, of the World tree, of some sacred ac-
can take the shape of a hare, an owl and other animals. A m o n g the Mongols, the cessories of shamans, in some ritual exclamations uttered by shamans during the
spirit of fire is known as Golomto; begotten by flint and iron, she is another offering ceremony, etc. (MHxaiuiOB 1980: 208; Mikhajlov 1984: 98-99). At the
daughter of Mother Earth and Father Heaven, and the most sacred place in the same time, the problems of greatest concern to scholars of shamanhood in Cen-
yurt is the fire (which is always at the centre of the yurt). The Yakut visualize tral and Middle Asia are related to the syncretic ritual forms, the contentious
fire as a loquacious old man in perpetual motion who knows and sees every- features of shamanhood and its absence in some regions (where Iranian ideo-
thing, but his speech is intelligible only to shamans and newborns. For the logical elements have been preserved), which is also noted by earlier observe
Nenets, Yakut, Tuvan, fire is the strongest of all spirits (Leete 1997; Hoppal. ers (CyxapeBa 1975: 78, with References), as well as its late emergence
1997). Hoppal writes that in the hierarchy of spirits, "[t]he Yakut categorized among Turkic ethnic groups (after the eighth-twelfth centuries - a thesis best
the spirit owner of fire (Uat iccite) among the most revered spirits, elevated to defended in FyMHjieB 1967). M a n y publications devoted to the Siberian and
the rank of a deity" (Hoppal 1997). The universal conception of fire as a living, Middle Asian traditions discuss the religious influences exercised on shaman-
all-seeing and all-knowing substance underlies the taboo on desecration of fire hood by the high theological cultures that spread northwards from India, Tibet,
and the worship of fire with food. China, and the problematic interpretation of the intertwined mythological, doc-
trinal and theological elements (for details, see CarajiaeB 1984).
In the vast Middle Asian and Siberian territories, there are common, re-
current concepts and characteristics of shamanhood. Even early observers New theological ideas and beliefs spread in Middle and Northern Asia at
of these territories noted the commonality of essential features and particular different stages in its history. In the first centuries AD, B u d d h i s m spread to the
details, including in the vocabulary. This has led to a.search for a possible i north, west, and northeast. It reached Korea in the fourth century, the Uighur sev-
.j. ±i .^o naa
mon centre of origin as w^n ac t^tu^ -> icu
• io a.searcn tor a pc com- eral centuries later, the Mongols in the thirteenth century, and the region of the
mon centre of origin as well as to the hypothesis that peoples which are now far Amur River in the fourteenth century. Buddhism had a particularly strong influ-
apart had contacts and relations in ancient times. M a n y scholars start from the ence on the Buryat and the Mongols. "[T]he Mongolian nomadic people ...
basic premise that Siberia is a cultural continuation of Middle Asia and view were always susceptible to outside cultural influences. Today their western
Siberian shamanhood in the context of Central Asian religiosity. Some argue, tribes are influenced by Islamic culture, while Lamaistic Buddhism and Chinese
not without reason, that it originated from animism in the southern agricultural culture dominate in the East" (Malm 1977: 143). The influence of Tibetan
regions (south of Siberia) or from Buddhism itself (Hultkranz 1984: 34, with Lamaism is especially tangible in the shamanhood of the Mongols. In his notes
References). Mikhajlov (1984: 105) has similar hypotheses about the roots of on the Buryat, Banzaroff writes that "[ajfter the introduction of Buddhism among
22
23
 I

the Mongolic nations, they called their old religion 'The Black Faith' (Khara
Islam, which spread into Middle Asia from the eighth century onwards
Shadjin), in contradistinction to Buddhism, which they called 'Yellow Faith'
(more precisely, Sufism - Pentikainen 1998:40), gradually overlaid the animis-
(Shira Shadjin)" (after Czaplicka 1914). In Mongolia, white shamans who have
tic ideology with images of Muslim saints, as it did with Christianity. In some
adopted Buddhism are called "yellow shamans or lamaised shamans, shamans
Middle Asian shamanic rituals Islam partly changed the terminology and some
of yellow direction": "They recite Buddhist texts, use Buddhist objects and make
names, and shamans began invoking not only the old spirits but also Muslim
prayer gestures like those of Buddhist monks. As a consequence of the early (17thj
prophets (for example, among the Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Turkmen, Uzbek and oth-
century) and strong lamai sation of Western Mongolia, the number of 'black sha-
ers 1 1 ). Urmancheev explains the comparatively easy spread of Islam in the
m a n s ' ... diminished significantly over the centuries" (Birtalan 2001: 120).
Volga Region, the territories around the Urals, and Central and Middle Asia
Unlike Buddhism, Taoism - which also influenced significantly the way of with the similarity between the "cult of Tengri" and Islam: "[T]he needs and
thinking, rituals and behaviour of many Asian peoples - made its way only into requirements of the two religions were so similar that they turned into mutually
the regions bordering China in the area of the lower A m u r River. During and complementary ones. It is no coincidence that along with the Arabic-Muslim
after the Early Middle Ages, Manichaeism likewise spread into Siberia. Ac- Allah, the older name of the god, Tengri, has survived in the Turkic-speaking
cording to Kyzlasov, the true spiritual culture of the Siberian .peoples cannot be world" (YpMaH^eeB 2001: 467-468). As noted above, the concepts of Tengri
viewed without taking into consideration the influence and spread of Mani- - along with the worship of water, the earth, the sun, the belief in guardian spir-
chaeism. 1 0 Obviously, the expansion of Manichaeism in Middle, Northern and \ its and spirit helpers, the cult of ancestors and of the wolf, the tiered structure of
Southern Asia was due not least to its religious strategy. The M a n i c h a e a n s ' the world, etc. - have survived in many parts of Middle Asia and Siberia, even
spread the "faith of M a n i " in the local languages, used the runic alphabet of the among those influenced by later religions. As we shall see below, this also ap-
Turks, and "fitted" into the local traditions. In Southern Siberia, Manichaeism plies to some Caucasian peoples who adopted Islam, to the Chuvash and the so-
incorporated many images and concepts from the local pagan beliefs, including called "Tatars" in the Volga Region. The same applies to the peoples who
from "Turkic shamanism". In the eighth-tenth centuries, it influenced also the adopted Christianity (Lapp, Ob-Ugric peoples, peoples in Northern Siberia), in
ancient Turkic "Tengriism which tended towards monotheism" (YpMaHHeeB whose tradition the old beliefs have integrated with newer ones.
2001: 467). That is also probably why the name of Tengri has been preserved
The changes in the worldview and beliefs of the Southern Siberian and
in Turkic-language sacred texts. "Siberian Manichaeism is a direct continuation
Middle Asian traditional communities occurred at a different pace. Mutual
of Central Asian Manichaeism. But whereas t:he latter was 'dressed in Buddhist
ethno-cultural influences and layers gradually accumulated in these especially
garb', Manichaeism in the north had a shaman's cloak." After the eighth^ninth
active, transitory territories. Theological concepts spread to the north, west and
centuries, the Sayan-Altai Turks and their neighbours (the Khakas, Tuvan,
east (from India, China and Korea), towards the relatively "pure" type of cul-
Tofalar, the peoples along the O b and Yenisey rivers) did not "remain ordinary
tures, additionally shaping the rites and some worldview concepts in the Sibe-
shamanists, as many scholars still think ... they became Siberian Manichaeans".
rian traditions. Shamanhood, in its turn, intensified some contents in the
It is claimed that traces of fading Manichaeism can still be found in the
behaviour and concepts of "religious life" to a different extent (Hultkranz 1984:
shamanhood, language and beliefs of the Siberian peoples (KH3JiacoB 2001:
33). The processes of spiritual inter-penetration (for example, between ani-
83-90). Some Manichaean ideas also reached the Mansi in Western Siberia.
mism, mythology, religion) complexified and even gave rise to new types of
Their creation legend about the Supreme Deity probably has a similar basis:
behaviour among all Asian peoples that have doctrinal and theological belief-
"Numi-Torum fashioned the figure of a human being out of clay but could not
systems and a legacy of shamanhood which can still be identified as such. An
give it the breath of life. It was only his sister Kaltash who could give the soul
especially typical example of this is the Korean tradition and shamanhood,
to humans" (information in Barkalaja 2000, with References).
about which there is written evidence dating as far back as the first century BC.
10 According to researchers, Korean shamanhood stands out precisely as a "devel-
A philosophical, encyclopaedic and literary religion which originated in Babylon in
the third century. Its founder, the prophet Mani, preached that Zoroastrianism, Christianity oped" and syncretic phenomenon deeply influenced by Confucianism, Bud-
and Buddhism are one true religion and that his mission was to restore it as such. dhism and Taoism. This influence is associated with the theory ofyin-yang and
Manichaeism spread into China, Tibet, part of India, the Sayan-Altai Plateau, Altai, Tuva, the
territory of present-day Mongolia, reaching Southern Siberia in the eighth century.
Manichaeism teaches that the human body was created by the god of Evil and that only the
soul was created by the god of Good. Manichaeans were known for their knowledge of as- 11
trology and the exact sciences, and their "philosophical meditations"; they built libraries, For more on the survival of shamanhood among these peoples, see Beliaev 1975:
temples, monasteries with a rich and complex architecture (Kw3JiacoB 2001: 83-90). 122; for the influence of Islam on shamanhood, see CyxapeBa 1975; MypoflOB 1975;
BaCHJIOB, HHH3KJIHHeB 1975.
24
25
 mysticism (from Taoism), 12 with the idea of not taking life without cause (from bolic communication between Heaven and Earth, the initiatory or funereal Bridge - al-
Buddhism), with the concepts of the multiple souls and their characteristics, though they are a component of Asian shamanism, those different elements precede and
which are found in similar form among other Asian peoples too (Introduction transcend it. (EjiHa^e 1996: 21, 425)
to Korean Folklore; Cho 1984; Kendall, Griffin 1987; Lee 1973, 1974, 1981;
Menges 1983; Kim-1988, etc.). Scholars studying the Korean as well as other Seeking to answer the question of what is shamanhood?, a number of schol-
Asian communities are concerned with the questions of the origin of the proto- ars have justifiably asked themselves if shamanism is truly a religion:
elements and the extent to which they are preserved, of the mutual influence be-
• Is shamanism a religion? The question is not without problems, because the lan-
tween the traditional/pagan and the theological. The problem of mythology and
guages of shamanic cultures do not have their own words for religion or shamanism....
shamanhood in religion and vice versa, as well as the subject of the so-called
Shamanhood should be understood as being an entity, including both the visible and
religious syncretism, preoccupies every contemporary scholar of Asia. This invisible elements of shaman rituals. Shamanhood therefore covers a wider area than
ought to be instructive for some Bulgarian authors, who identify shamanhood as "religion" in its western traditional sense... (Pentikainen 1998:36)
a "religion of the ancient Bulgars" and automatically locate it in the vast spiri- • Shamanism ... by itself is not a religion but only a cult form integrated into a
tual and geographical region of Middle Asia without any sound scientific evi- religion. (Gilbert 1984: 23)
dence. • Shamanism is not, as is often supposed, a religion, but a psychological technique
At the beginning of the third millennium, one should not expect that classi- which, theoretically, could appear within the framework of any religion.13
cal Siberian shamanhood has survived intact. The problems regarding its terri- • Instead of using the term shamanism I prefer to speak of shaman belief.... Sha-
manism I believe is not a religion but a world view of a kind, a relation to things, to the
torial dimensions and names/terms remain purely academic ones. They are also
world and to one's environment. (Hoppal 1999: 58)
related to the attempts to define the phenomenon itself and even to come up with
• Shamanism is an animistic ideology. (Paulson 1964: 131)
an unambiguous definition. What is shamanhood? A religion, a cult form, a syn-
• Today shamanism is a pure neologism which misleads its very advocates into
cretic form, an early form of religion, a kinship institution, a psychological tech-
assuming that Siberian nomadic tribes had created a conscious religious system. (OOJI
nique? The answers to this question are different. Some of them go as follows:
AJI. 2002: 245)
• Shamanism is the religious complex developed around the shaman.... Shaman- Even some years ago, Pentikainen drew serious attention to the differences
ism could pass as a typical phenomenon of hunting cultures in general. (Hultkranz 1973:
between shamanhood and shamanism, which are still used as synonymous in
36;1984: 32)
studies in different languages, as well as to the need of reformulating the termi-
• Shamanism is in fact a universal phenomenon within a system of traditional re-
ligion. (Taksami 1998: 14) nology "to emphasize the importance of non-dogmatic and symbolic aspects of
• Shamanism is not only characteristic of tribal peoples but also is an ongoing and shamanic mythical worldviews":
irreducible mode of experiencing the sacred that is not limited to a particular ethnic
Avvakum and other early writers on the subject of Siberian cultures wrote about
group. (Grim 1983: 25-29)
shamans, not shamanism. The phenomenon only became known as shamanism after it
was recognised as being a "pagan religion".... Mission churches had therefore found a
The idea of the existence of shamanic elements in different traditional cul-
new "-ism" to ward off in the late 18th century. Siberian pagan phenomena were given
tures actually belongs to Eliade, and has since been interpreted repeatedly:
the label shamanism, although they were not theological and not at all dogmatic. As the
While shamanism is indeed a pre-eminently religious phenomenon of Central and whole idea of shamanism is connected with definitions given by eastern and western
North Asia, it is nevertheless not a religion as such.... The ideology as well as the my- Christianity, we should probably talk instead about "shamanhood" as being the basic
thology and rites of the Arctic, Siberian and Asian populations are not the product of concept of shamanic culture - its mythology, way of life and philosophy. (Pentikainen
the relevant shamans. ... The sacred space, the meaning of songs, the mystic or sym- 1998:36)
"Shamanhood".. .is closer to the self-perception of the shamans themselves, since
12
they do not see shamanism as a "religion" in the western sense of the word.
The Koreans believe that death means disruption of the spiritual connection between (Pentikainen 2001b: 508-509)
the ying and the yang, upon which the yang component leaves the body and ascends to heaven.
If the deceased had a meaningful and good life on earth, they become sin, a benevolent spirit;
conversely, if they lived in depravity the yang element cannot ascend and remains among the
living as kwi, an evil spirit/ghost. Of course, shamans can help kwi ascend to heaven. People
who die in accidents or on the battlefield, or who commit suicide - i.e. those who die a vio- 13
lent or premature death - also become kwi. Lommel 1967. Shamanism: The Beginning of Art. New York - Toronto: McGraw
Hill, p. 69 (quoted from Hoppal 1984: 441).
26
27
 I
In my view, the phenomenon is best defined as a "system of beliefs" and it gion is not found as a purely synchronic phenomenon among any ethnic group or
is no doubt true that Siberian shamanic societies "did not have one of the main even in any country. At the diachronic level, they are always in a state of con-
religions (like Christianity, Buddhism, Islam etc.) based on priests" (Gilberg stant overlapping and inter-penetration. And it is precisely in the sphere of folk
1984:24). The misconception that shamanhood is a religion (found in many eth- faith and rites that official state religions are likewise reduced to "folk" reli-
nological and anthropological publications) most likely comes from the popu- gions (folk Christianity, folk Islam etc.). If the gap that appears between a newly
lar definitions authored by not particularly religious people... They presume imposed ideology and the previous type of ideology is not filled, the relevant
that religion is the totality of diachronically accumulated spiritual layers in a society will simply fall apart...
given territory and nation or ethnic group. This totality invariably includes the, Studying intertwining spiritual relationships and their various connotations
deification of nature (i.e. of the creation, and not of the Creator!) and the pres-i is an especially interesting challenge but also a serious task for science. That is
ence of the mysterious "supernatural/superhuman", which no doubt offers plenty | also why equating different (both diachronically and territorially) spiritual re-
of material for the film industry. Actually, the problem is not whether the phe- • alities and subsuming them under a single "collective" term smacks of dubious
nomenon called religion exists and when did it appear, but what are its contents' literacy. It actually eliminates the essence of religion as a type of worldview
and how does it differ from the so-called pre-religious thinking. level and institutional level. A n d if according to those who love "universal"
Irrespective of time and territory, religion is institutionalized faith with a generalizations religion is a universal phenomenon that has existed ever since
hierarchically organized system of worship governed by established rules. Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and down to the present day in general, then
In many cases, religion was imposed historically as a political act and consti- we might ask ourselves a simple rhetorical question: W h y haven't humans, too,
tutes an autonomous ideological system. Within this sphere there are essen- still remained of the same species?
tially different types of religion. Some of them are defined as messianic and
originate from charismatic figures who actually created esoteric doctrines. The
subsequently emergent institution absolutized the deeds and words of the .
founders and imposed dogmatic models of behaviour, to the point where its
"claims to universality" and "exceptionality of its ideas" turn into "intolerance
towards all other faiths" (after TpHropHeB 1995: 319; Pentikainen 2001b: 510).
The individual phenomenon (in human form), transformed into an ideological
and even into a political model of "us/them" behaviour, gave rise to the term
paganism 1 4 (as in the term shamanism) referring to the previous "high" religion.
Incidentally, paganism likewise indiscriminately lumps together animistic,
doctrinal and religious activities and ideas. Any one of what I will tentatively
call the "charismatic" religions is neither more nor less universal or global than
the others. On the contrary. The term and concept of universality or globality '
correspond to another, older type of cosmogonic religiosity which strives to
achieve harmony between Humans and the Cosmos and the union of humans
with the divine through inherited supra-individual ideas and concepts of the
Universe.
Every "charismatic" religion (for example, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastri-
anism) has a pre-history, its emergence having been essentially conditioned by
the preceding types of religiosity. To one extent or another, it was integrated
precisely into and through the inherited high value systems and models of
behaviour. Diachronically, the latter continued to prevail and function outside
the field of the official state religion - in traditional folk faith. As is well-
known, at that level full coincidence between faith-rites and official state reli-

14
C.E.D. - pagan - L. paganus, from pagus, the country, a countryman.

28
29
 who is usually one of his relatives, even at an early age. With every passing
year, the hereditary "gift" and possession are manifested in "dreams that c o m e
true", unusual experiences, "virtual insanity", etc. (Alexeev 1984: 273, with
References; Pentikainen 1998: 3 2 , 3 3 ) . The shaman's gift may also manifest it-
self in sudden mental or physical illness, in initiatory visions (such as travel to
the Upper World, bodily dismemberment and restoration, i.e. rebirth as a " n e w "
and stronger one). A m o n g the Buryat, a child "elected" to be a shaman will of-
RITES AND CONCEPTS ten fall into meditation and introversion, and have mysterious dreams and faint-
ing-fits; they believe that at such moments the child's soul leaves its body and
goes to be trained by the western, white, or eastern, black, tenger depending on
The term shaman (sama:n, samon, soman, khaman, translated as "some- whether the child is predestined to be a "white" or a "black" shaman. During
one who knows" - Pentikainen 2001b: 508) has been recorded among the the "training", under the guidance of dead shamans, the travelling soul must
Tungus people Evenk} The Turkic cam - hence the Russian term for the memorize the names of the spirits, the places they inhabit, the ways to propitiate
shamanic rite kamlanie (i.e. invocations of spirits - Mikhailovski 1894: 55;
them, etc. (AranHTOB, HaHrajioB 1883: 42-53).
Niemi 1998: 72) - has a similar meaning. The different Siberian peoples have
The belief in the hereditary transmission of "the shaman's gift" is com-
different names for the shaman (in Yakut, he is called o'iun; in Mongol, buge;
mon to all of Siberia, to some Turkic and Asian peoples who consider only he-
Buryat, buge or bo; Tungus, samman, hamman; Turkic, kam; Altaic Turkic,
reditary shamans to be true shamans (KemrH-JToncaH 2000). According to
kam, gam; Samoyed, tadibey etc.), for the shamanic drum, rites and ritual ac-
Lintrop, who studies the mechanisms of transmission in this tradition, the belief
cessories. To quote Pentikainen,
in the hereditary transmission of the shaman's gift influences the future shaman's
the majority of Siberian cultures do not know the concept "shaman" (it is lacking from own conscious and subconscious motives, creating a subsystem of the ego,
most of their vocabularies), although they are clearly shamanistic.... Typical Siberian which is the supernatural being (spirit) that possesses an individual. Lintrop
shamanic features are found in the vocabularies, mythologies, folklore, drum and mu- tries to explain the process of origin of "the shaman's sickness" using Walker's
sic, dress and gastronomy of the Arctic and Subarctic Uralic cultures (Sami, Ob-Ugric, and Shor's conceptions of hypnosis and possession as different forms of regres-
Samoyed) of the northern fell, tundra and taiga regions. (Pentikainen 1998: 30; 2001b: sion in the service of the ego (Walker), and of hypnosis as "a complex of two
506,510)
processes, one of which is the construction of a special, temporary orientation
and the other is the relative fading of the generalized reality-orientation into
Shamanhood is part of the tradition of a particular society. In addition
non-functional unawareness" (Shor). Lintrop uses the term "reality of legends"
to specific healing skills, shamans must have knowledge of herbs, of the mytho-
to mark the "temporary orientation" that enables possession, in which con-
narratives of their community, of different spells, charms, incantations, songs,
sciousness passes into a "relatively non-functional state". During the initiatory
myths, and so on. Shamans are universally believed to be travellers and media-
visions, "[t]he novice is possessed not only by one particular supernatural be-
tors between the worlds, as well as to possess special abilities to contact the
ing but the whole world beyond with its inhabitants. Although familiar from leg-
spirits. Many authors define the so-called "soul journey" as a shaman's most
ends and myths, this unexpectedly visualized world is still strange and frighten-
distinctive feature (Gilbert 1984: 23, with References). Both m e n and w o m e n
ing. ... During initiation these are balanced and the visions of the novice become
can be shamans. Their teeth, fontanelles, hair and other unusual birth conditions
fairly traditional. The candidate adapts himself to the reality of legends - that is
or marks are believed to be a sign of their predestination. The Tuvan believe
becomes a shaman" (Lintrop 1996a).
that the soul of the dead shaman-predecessor lodges itself into his successor,
Among the Ostyak, the father himself chooses his successor, not necessarily ac-
1 cording to age, but according to capacity; and to the chosen one he gives his own
From Czaplicka 1914: "In Sanskrit sram - to be tired, to become weary; sramana = knowledge. If he has no children, he may pass on the office to a friend, or to an adopted
work, religious mendicant. In the Pali language the word samana has the same meaning.
These two latter words have been adopted by the Buddhists as names for their priests. But, child. ... Among both the Yakut and the Buryat, although the office is not necessarily
according to Banzaroff, the word shaman originated in northern Asia: saman is a Manchu hereditary ... it will generally happen that the shamanistic spirit passes from one to an-
word, meaning 'one who is excited, moved, raised'; samman (pronounced shaman) and other of the same family. ... Bogoras did not hear of any transferring of shamanistic
hamman in Tungus, have the same meaning. Samdambi is Manchu: T shamanize', i.e. 'I call power while he was among the Chukchee. He found it, however, among Eskimo
the spirits dancing before the charm'." women, who were taught by their husbands, and whose children were taught by their

30
31
 parents. ... To people of more mature age the shamanistic call may come during some
character), at last feel a call to take up shamanistic practice and by this means
great misfortune, dangerous and protracted illness, sudden loss of family or property....'
However, very old people are not supposed to hear the shamanistic call. (Czaplicka overcome the disease" (Bogoras 1907: 4 2 0 , 4 2 1 , 4 1 7 , 4 5 0 ) . At the same time,
1914, with References) hereditary vocation by itself is seldom enough, and in most cases the future sha-
man must train for years as an apprentice to and assistant of an old shaman
Among the Chukchi, the older shaman, (Gilberg 1984: 25; KeHHH-JIoncaH 2000: 85). The children and grandchildren
of shamans enter this training with an advantage, which comes from their obser-
[t]he man who gives a part of his power to another man loses correspondingly, and can vations and contact with the old shaman's knowledge, songs and stories, de-
hardly recover the loss afterwards. To transfer his power, the older shaman must blow , scriptions of the Upper and the Lower World, of supernatural beings, etc.
on the eyes or into the mouth of the recipient, or he may stab himself with a knife, with
(Lintrop 1996a).
the blade of which, still reeking with his "source of life" (telkeyun), he will immediately
pierce the body of the recipient. ... The Ostyak shaman occasionally sells his familiar j Shamanhood is not specific to a particular social class, stratum or gender;
spirit to another shaman. After receiving payment, he divides his hair into tresses, and I it depends on the personal abilities of individuals. In life they may be ascetic or
fixes the time when the spirit is to pass to his new master. The spirit, having changed non-ascetic, gay or straight. In the past as well as in the present, the majority of
owners, makes his new possessor suffer. (Czaplicka 1914, with References) the bearers of this tradition are illiterate (Pentikainen 2001b: 508). Almost all
nineteenth- and early twentieth-century observers note that among a number of
During the period of preparation of the new shaman, "his relations call in Siberian peoples (such as the Yukaghir, Koryak, Chukchi, Samoyed, Ostyak,
a good shaman, who makes a sacrifice to propitiate the spirits and induce them Tungus, Yakut, Buryat), there were as many shamanesses as male shamans.
to help the young shaman-to-be. If the future shaman belongs to a poor family, Their social status is higher than that of the other women in the community, and
the whole community helps to procure the sacrificial animals and other things they, as well as male shamans, are not subject to certain taboos that apply to
which are indispensable for the ceremonies" (Czaplicka 1914). "During the ordinary people (Czaplicka 1914). A m o n g the Itelmen as among some Turkic
time of preparation the shaman has to pass through both a mental and a physical ' and Mongol peoples, female shamans predominate. According to a Chukchi sha-
training.... The young novice ... loses all interest in the ordinary affairs of life. man, "women are shamans by nature" and their initiation period is shorter and
He ceases to work, eats but little ... ceases to talk to people, and does not even easier than that of male shamans. The crucial point in their lives is childbirth,
answer their questions. The greater part of his time he spends in sleep" which may lead to temporary or complete loss of their shamanic gift.
(Bogoras 1907: 420, 421; Jochelson 1905-1908: 47). For the weaker shamans
Shamanic ceremonies have different purposes and functions, and can be
and for female shamans the preparatory period is less painful, and the inspira-
classified generally as public and private. Both have c o m m o n structural com-
tion comes mainly through dreams. But for a powerful/great shaman this stage is
ponents (invocation, supplication, incantation, offering etc.). The former are
long (lasting from one to several years) and very painful. A m o n g the Buryat, the
associated with the cycle of the agricultural/hunting season (e.g. for successful
novice
hunting), the well-being of a particular community, family, clan, village etc.; the
cannot, however, become a shaman until he reaches the age of twenty. Finally he un- latter are performed on personal request (for healing, finding lost property, re-
dergoes a purification ceremony. One such ceremony does not confer all the rights and turning a soul stolen by a spirit, begetting a child,'"enlivening" a sacred image,
powers of a shaman; there are, in fact, nine. But very few shamans go through all these etc. ) and are not restricted to a particular calendar period. 3
2

purifications; most only undergo two or three; some, none at all, for they dread the re- All Siberian hunting societies have propitiatory ceremonies to ensure suc-
sponsibilities which devolve upon consecrated shamans. To a fully consecrated shaman cessful hunting and an abundance of game and*fish. Before a hunt, the shaman
the gods are very severe, and punish his faults or mistakes with death. (Czaplicka 1914) and the hunters pray to the "spirit of the dark forest", offer sacrifices and call
the strongest animals-lords, totems and ancestors of their people (among the
In many societies, people are reluctant to become shamans, regarding the
Buryat, the bear, the eagle, the Siberian tiger, the snow leopard; the ancestors of
shaman's painful gift as a life-long burden. Bogoras writes that young shamans
the Mongol peoples include the Blue Wolf, the Red Deer, and the Father Bull).
fight internally against their calling and against the spirits, which makes their
preparatory period even more painful. The process of initiation itself is ex- 2
tremely stressful; "some youths prefer death to obedience to the call of spirits", The Koreans, for example, will hire a shaman when a member of their family has con-
stant bad luck and misfortunes; when a young person dies, the shaman must appease their soul
which the Chukchi believe "are very bad-tempered, and punish with immediate and prevent their turning into an evil spirit that may hurt the whole village (Menges 1983).
death the slightest disobedience,of the shaman.... There are cases of young per- 3
Some calendar-based shamanic initiations in Southern Siberia (among the Tungus, the
sons who, having suffered for years from lingering illness (usually of a nervous Buryat) are considered to be "a result of influence from the religions of Far Eastern civiliza-
tions" (Hultkranz 1979: 120, with References).
32
33
 In the past, the northern peoples celebrated the beginning and end of every hunt-
the evil spirits albis, inhabitants of sandy and desert places; people who encounter these
ing season for days, and the offering of various objects, food, alcohol, sacrifi-' spirits fall ill and may lose their sanity; albis shamans recapture the soul of the ill per-
cial animals, etc. were invariably directed by shamans. Almost without excep- son, thus saving their life; those saved will then become shamans themselves, and they
tion, every sacrifice was followed by a kamlanie in the evening to see whether are called sexless shamans. (5) Shamans originating from the evil spirits aza, who are
the spirits had accepted the offering benevolently. This applied to family as well dangerous and lure people in different forms (in the form of a human, a fox, whirl-
as to large tribal and village sacrificial rites, at which several shamans could wind...); only aza shamans can return the soul of the "attacked". Before and during
perform kamlanie simultaneously. According to Siikala (1984: 74, citing Hult-' their ceremonies, the different types of shamans stress their origin, appealing to the an-
kranz), i n Northern Siberia this type of sacrificial ceremonies has replaced "the cestor spirits who give them power. (KeHUH-JIoncaH 2000: 80-84)
primitive hunting rites".
Shamans are divided into white and black depending on the type of spirits
According to Jochelson's account of the Yukaghir (1926: 210-211), "[t]he'
they contact and the parts of the Universe they can travel to. A m o n g the Yakut,
soul of the shaman ... approached the house of the O w n e r " to ask for the souls
white shamans serve the sky spirits, do their rituals only in the daytime, and their
of animals for the future hunt. "If the Owner of the Earth loves the shaman he
symbol is 'he lUngiir (drum). In the past, they conducted the rites and'invocations
gives' the soul of reindeer doe, if he does not love he gives him. the shadow of a
performed before a hunt. Black shamans serve the dark spirits incarnated as
bull." Returning with the soul of a reindeer (which means that the hunters will '
dark-coloured animals, perform their rituals during dark nights (without a
have good luck throughout the season), "the shaman rises to his feet, beats his
moon), and their main ritual accessory is the gown/cloak (Hoppal 1997, with
drum and dances with joy ... sings to his spirit-protectors, who helped him.
References). A m o n g the Ket, great shamans correspond to white shamans, and
Then the shaman approaches the head hunter and hands him the soul, for only '
operate only in the upper world (Alekseenko 1984: 94). The Mongols associate
shaman can see it. The shaman places it on the head of the h u n t e r . . . tying it with
white and black shamans with the eastern'and western spirits tenger. Black sha-
an invisible bandage" and explaining where on the following day he must killthe
mans serve the eastern, dark tenger, and are therefore believed to have the
reindeer brought by the shaman. "If the Owner of the Earth gave a bull, the hunter
power to cause illness and human death. They are much feared by the people,
will only kill that bull, and there will be no more g a m e " (Siikala 1984: 72).
who sometimes killed them, and this has led to their extinction in some places.
Depending on the occasion, as well as on the j u d g e m e n t of shamans, the Among the Votyak, white shamans are almost the only shamans now to be found,
rites are performed in huts, yurts or other places sacred to the clan and the while among the Yakut, black shamans predominate. The Buryat say that the
village, which are believed to be inhabited by a spirit protector (at the top or at white and black shamans "fight with each other, hurling axes at one another from
the foot of a mountain, on the bank of a river or lake, by a spring, rock or ancient distances of hundreds of miles" (Czaplicka 1914). This differentiation and di-
tree, etc. - for details, see Pentikainen 1998:19-34). A m o n g the Tuvan, the ven- vision of shamans into black and white is not found in all of Siberia, where the
eration of springs "was intertwined with the cult of the trees growing around ... number of shamans in the community can vary. Among the Nenets, for example,
especially ... whose growth or shape differed from the usual. ... Trees of this back in the past every clan had its own shaman of a particular type (XOMHH 1981:
kind were called shaman trees. ... If such a tree stood near a spring, under the 14). Some communities have only a single shaman, serving as both a "white"
tree shamans made their ceremonies" (Hoppal 1997). The Nanai perform such and a "black" one. The latter "helps men no less than the white shaman does. H e
ceremonies in front of a tow, a tree with a carved image of a human face is not necessarily bad, though he deals with evil powers, and he occupies among
(BynraKOBa 2 0 0 1 : 4 1 ) . T h e result of every ceremony has always depended on the Yakut a higher position than among other Neo-Siberians." It is universally
the abilities, of the shaman. The different types of shamans are determined by believed that "[t]he more powerful they are, the wider is the circle in which they
their origin and individual powers to contact different levels of the Universe. can practise their art" (Czaplicka 1914, with References).
Every type has a particular domain and authority of activities, as well as a spe-
The journeys and overall activity of shamans are unthinkable without the
cific name. The different types of Tuvan shamans are a typical example in this
help of the so-called spirit helpers and spirit protectors invoked in all rituals
respect:
together with the other spirits inhabiting the Universe and its directions. The
(1) The true and most powerful Tuvan shamans (both men and women) are he- concept of the existence of sky spirits sent by the supreme force to protect
reditary shamans - descendants of eight to ten generations of shamans. (2) Shamans people, of underworld spirits, of spirit helpers of shamans, etc. (Alekseev 1984:
who originated and obtained their shamanic gift from the spirits iersu (keepers of earth 276; Massenzio 1984: 204), as well as the mytho-narratives about them are the
and water). (3) Sky shamans originating from Uli-Khairakan, a deity connected with product of folk beliefs that transcend the sphere of shamanhood. Although schol-
Tengri (the Sacred Sky) as well as with the belief that those whose heads are struck by ars classify spirit helpers in different ways, they agree that they have the same,
lightning can become sky shamans. (4) Albis, a high type of shamans originating from animistic, Siberian and Asian roots. Some scholars distinguish two basic types

34
35
 of spirit helpers: spirits which are substantially under the shaman's control and As their power grows, shamans acquire more and more spirit helpers and
which serve as his familiars, and spirits which maintain a certain independence forms of their incarnations, which are not zoomorphic only. The power of Yakut
but are available when he needs to call on their aid. There are also very power- shamans depends on the number of their spirit helpers; great shamans have the
ful spirits which are beyond the control of shamans (Hoppal 1997). Such spirits largest number of spirit helpers, and their spirits are more powerful than those
are the above-mentioned sky spirits tenger, the masters of the cardinal direc-, of average or weak shamans (Alekseev 1984: 269, 276). 4 The Tungus, Yakut,
tions, who are invoked for help in rituals for rainmaking or sending lightning'
Nanai, Altaians believe that deceased members of the shaman's family can also
back to the sky. For the purpose, the Mongols have special shrines (oboo) dedi- •
become his spirit helpers. Generally, among many peoples, the spirits of the
cated to Tenger and the mountain spirits.
ancestors are invoked in all rituals along with Father Heaven and Mother Earth.
Many spirit helpers are in the form o f a n animal or a bird (zoomorphic or' The Mongol peoples believe that one of the souls of humans (suld) remains on
ornithomorphic): a bear, an elk, a wolf, a deer, a hare, a seal; an eagle, an owl, earth perpetually after death as an ancestral spirit helper and protector of the
a goose, a diver, a swan, a c r o w . . . The horse is known as the shaman's spirit clan, residing with its relative or in a natural place such as a rock, a spring, or a
for the Yakut, and for the Ostyak and the Vogul who use the horse to journey to tree. These spirits, kept in the so-called ongon (specially created "house"/bag
the heavens.. For the Lapps fish may appear as the spirit helpers, and for the for spirits), are one of the most important assistants of shamans. Ongons come
Tungus the spirit helpers may appear in the form of snakes (Ojamaa 1997). For in many different forms; they can be carved out of wood, painted on leather, or
the Yakut, the most powerful spirits are those of bulls, stallions, elks, and black made out of metal. The Buryat have black and white ongons, which generally
boars, while dogs and wolves are spirit helpers of weaker, inferior shamans. have human faces. Ongons may be made by ordinary people to "house" one of
For the Yakut again, the most important of all spirit helpers is the yekyua (liter- the "souls" of their ancestors or relatives as a protector of the family. But they
ally, "mother-animal"), in which the shamans incarnate their kut - that part of can be enlivened only by the shaman, who calls the spirit to occupy them. The
the soul which, according to the Yakut, is common to animals and humans. "It is ongon is honoured by being placed in the sacred place in the yurt or hut and fed
said that the shamans incarnate their kut [which is done only during the time they offerings. The Yakut "install" the souls of those who died a premature or violent
are actually shamanizing] in certain animals, e.g. in stallions, wolves, dogs, and death, and of sorcerers in wooden "bags" similar to the ongons. They, too, are
that these animals are thus the yekyua of shamans If one of these animals kills placed in a prominent position in the home, or in a sacred corner, and are fed by
another of its species, then the corresponding shaman will die" (Czaplicka the shaman with the smoke of meat thrown into the fire (Alekseyenko et al. 1998:
1914, with References). There are similar beliefs among the Mongols, too. ; 143). Shamans themselves normally have a large set of ongons, which are
The bearers of the shamanic tradition, as well as researchers', distinguish passed down from generation to generation because the spirit is believed to
between the different spirits (and shamans) most often on the basis of origin. , continue to live in them. The ongon spirit is believed to be a carrier of the he-
Their "classification" or "ordering" makes the vast and diverse sphere of invis- reditary, collective memory of all the shamans it has been associated with in the
ible substances more perspicuous - which, however, is not to say that we should past (Czaplicka 1914; Mongolian Shamanism - Introduction 101.1997).
picture the spirits as being lined up in rows next to the s h a m a n . . . They are able In most rites, shamans travel across or below this world, or ascend to the
to fly everywhere in an instant, to see and feel from afar, to move between the Upper World. Every "soul journey" and field of action is governed by the cos-
past, present and future, guiding shamans during their "soul journeys". The con- mogonic ideas about the Universe and its structure. T h e concept that the Su-
cepts that the shaman is their master (shamans ride them, sit on their backs) and preme Creator/Sacred Sky is inaccessible to c o m m o n people as well as sha-
can therefore control and incarnate them (by turning into a bear, wolf, deer, fish, mans is universal in Siberia (for example, "Khanty Turum -is inaccessible to
tiger, etc. - R o u g e t 1985: 21, with References; Gilbert 1984: 22) actually attest common people and it is not possible to bring sacrifices to him directly ... even
to the purpose and concept of the shaman's ideal identification with them. It is shamans are unable to converse with him" *- Barkalaja 2000, with References).
questionable to what extent this undertaking is voluntary, who is the "master" Shamans can ascend to the Upper World through the smoke hole of the yurt (the
and who is the "servant", and whether it is the shaman who incarnates into a vertical axis represented by the smoke rising from the place of the fire also rep-
spirit or vice versa. What is important here is the belief that it is the shaman resents the World Tree which shamans ascend to the Upper World), often after
who gets chosen by a powerful spirit helper (animal double or animal mother),
which then becomes his or her spirit guide; the shaman usually takes its form
during his or her journeys to the otherworld. In my view, the desire to acquire 4
Native American medicine men also have a hierarchy based on abilities and field of
the unlimited abilities of spirits and the shaman's personal transformation into action. The most powerful among them are those belonging to the "fifth class", who have five
them attest to the depersonification and, ultimately, the subordinate position of spirit helpers which are able to bring back people from the dead (i.e. to return one of their
shamans. lost souls - Hultkranz 1957: 246).
36
37
they have metamorphized into a bird. In some shaman rituals, such as the initia- does not reincarnate but takes residence in nature after death. T h e ami soul is
tion of shamans in Buryatia, a tree (toroo) will actually be erected extending' related to the ability to breathe and may leave the body during illness; after
beyond the smoke hole. The toroo tree has nine steps carved into it, and as the death, it returns to the World Tree (in the Upper World) where it roosts in its
shaman climbs higher and higher, the drumming and the encouragements of his branches in the form of a bird; the w o m b goddess Umai dispatches ami souls on
audience bring him to an ecstatic state. As he ascends the tree, he describes his spirit horses to enter a new body at the time of birth; ami souls tend to reincar-
journey to the Upper World. Soul journeys into the world of spirits have spe- nate among their relatives; the suns soul carries the collected experiences of
cific and recurrent n a m e s for the different movements of the body. For ex- past lives within it; it is an inhabitant of the Lower World between incarnations
ample, movements forward and upward mark t h e beginning of a "flight", irre- but may return as a ghost to visit friends or relatives. The ruler of the Lower
spective of the direction - towards the Upper or towards the Lower World. World (Erleg Khan) determines when and where it will reincarnate, but if a soul
During their journeys, shamans can repeatedly change their form or gender de- was extremely evil during its life on earth he may extinguish it forever. The suns
pending on the spirits that possess and guide them. Upon these transformations, may temporarily leave the body and go to the Lower World; a shaman must then
they may look and move incoherently or, conversely, walk, dance and even de- undertake a dangerous journey and negotiate with Erleg Khan for its return;
scribe what they see to their audience. Shamans need to travel to the Lower when the soul is1 found it is placed in the shaman's ear or inside the drum for the
World when they must retrieve a soul or escort the dead to the kingdom of the, return trip, then shaken out back into the body of the ill person (Mongolian Sha-
dead. They reach the Lower World by way of the World River, through caves, i manism - Introduction 101. 1997).
whirlpools, springs, etc., or, in other words, by following the way of the spirits. Many Asian peoples believe that animals and plants also possess multiple
Such journeys are the most dangerous and difficult ones, and can be undertaken souls, which reincarnate after death. These concepts underlie a number of rules
only by great and powerful shamans. Some peoples have a special group of sha- regarding hunting and the killing of game and of domestic animals, whose ob-
mans who escort the souls of the dead. Among the Amur Nanai, the highest position servance ensures the return of g a m e and a good relationship with the animal
in the hierarchy is held by the kasa tai shaman, who has the power and authority to spirits: animals should never b e killed except for food or fur, and it should be
conduct the souls of the deceased to the kingdom of the dead. This is done in an done in a quick and humane way to prevent them from suffering; game must be
annual ceremony at which the shaman dispatches at a go the souls of everyone shared in the community and not hoarded; when a large animal is killed or a
who died in the p a s t year. They travel by sledge, accompanied by the shaman and large fish is caught, the hunter or fisherman may cry over its death to appease
his spirit helpers - birds and dogs (EyjiraKOBa 2001: 41; Alekseyenko et al. the animal spirit. The idea that one must avoid injuring and offending the souls
1998: 183). Among the Nenets, these are "sdmbana shamans ... specialized of animals, as well as the taboo on killing animals without reason, is probably
only in escorting the dead to the world of the dead" (Niemi 1998: 72). Buddhist in origin. It also underlies the manner in which animals are sacrificed
Many Asian and Siberian peoples believe that humans have multiple souls, among the Mongol peoples, who believe that the head, throat, lungs and heart
usually three, each of which has a different fate after death. When a person loses are collectively the residence of an animal's soul (ami) and should therefore be
one of their souls, they may obtain its return through a shaman. For the .Samoyed, removed from the body in one piece (Mongolian Shamanism - Introduction
women have four souls, and men five; the Yakut believe that humans possess 101. 1997). 6
three.spuls: tyn, which is c o m m o n to humans, animals and plants; kut, which is The Siberian and Asian concepts of the human soul are at the heart of be-
c o m m o n to humans and animals, and is composed of three elements (earth, air, liefs about illness and especially about severe illness, which is believed to be
and a mother-soul; and siir, the psychic soul/force, which is common to humans caused above all by soul loss. A n d it is precisely the s h a m a n as healer w h o
and animals. The Altaians have similar conceptions (Jochelson 1905-1908: must retrieve the lost, travelling soul, because there is always the threat of its
102-103; Czaplicka 1914). 5 Unlike ordinary people, a great Gilyak shaman may being captured by spirits as it travels while the ill person sleeps (Alekseyenko
have as many as four souls (one from the mountains, another from the sea, a third et al. 1998: 183). Hostile ancestor spirits and less powerful nature spirits can
from the sky, and a fourth from the underworld - Czaplicka 1914). According to be expelled and "cured" by singing or waving a ritual fan over the patient, as
the Asian (and Mongolian) concept, the multiple souls are hypostases of the well as by sucking or pulling gestures that draw them out of the body. M o r e
three worlds in humans. The suld soul lives in a physical body only once, and
6
In Mongol sacrificial rituals, the shaman rips open the sacrificial animal's belly,
Plunges his hand and squeezes the heart or twists the aorta, thus killing it in seconds (Rudolf
5
The belief that humans have four souls, each with a different function and fate after M. Brandl. 2000. "Schamanenopfer an den Himmel Innere Mongolei 2000". RMB Video, Ed.
death, is also found in North America. For more on the multiplicity of souls and a detailed Re Gottingen, ISBN 3-927636-VHS PAL). For this information and for the video material, I
analysis of the different types of souls, see Hultkranz 1953: 30, 119-124, 464-480. thank my Finnish colleague R. P. Pennanen and, indirectly, Prof. Rudolf M. Brandl.

38 39
 1
powerful spirits or hostile shamans require going into trance, while the most Identification with the spirit/deity, the very fact that "an objective substance or
powerful may need sacrifices to make them go away. In exchange for the human form of life is ritually transformed through some process" (K)Hr 1999: 124-
soul, the spirits are promised by the shaman and given by the healed person the 125), may also be a manifestation of transcendence in rituals. Not all shamanic
soul of an animal or sacred implements; it is absolutely necessary that the healed rituals require going into trance; some may involve only fortune-telling or spirit
person keep the promise given by the shaman and give the agreed gift to the spir-' invocation. Among the eastern Khanty, for example, the shamanic journey tends
its. The shaman may use a knife, a red hot iron, a bow and arrow, or other imple- to be a "state of inspiration" in which the shaman "sees and hears the spirits ...
ments to drive away the disease spirit. An ongon or mirror may be used to catch; in a state of full consciousness"; at the end ? of the ritual the shaman describes his
a spirit in order to keep it from j u m p i n g into another person when it is expelled.' or her journey, gives advice, answers different questions, and foretells the fu-
In such cases the shaman travels part of the way to the L o w e r World and then ture (KepeacH 2001: 75, with References).
sends the spirit away. A m o n g the Nanai, the shaman will ask the patient's clos- Typically, shamans use various stimulants on their soul journeys, such as
est relative to make a wooden figure of the evil spirit causing the illness, and hallucinogenic plants, fly agaric, and alcohol. This fact is noted by almost all
then "transfer" it from the patient's body to this figure (Alekseyenko et al. 1998:' researchers. One description by Barkalaja (1997) contains interesting evidence
185, 188). Shamans can also heal with herbs. However, soul retrievals are by about intoxication with the amanita mushroom, in which the m u s h r o o m itself
far the most dangerous work for shamans because they have to travel outside. appears and travels as a spirit helper of the shaman. Another technique of boost-
their bodies for long distances and they are vulnerable to soul loss themselves ing the shaman's psychosomatic powers involves drinking liquid mixed with
during the journey. In such cases the shaman may lose consciousness or even die 1 tenger, i.e. with the "soul" of objects struck by lightning, most often powdered
during the ceremony. j stones or meteorites. The Mongols call such objects Tengeriin Us (Heaven's
Shamans travel to the different levels of the universe during rituals in a hair). Lightning itself is a sign of tenger or an indication of a site of high spiri-
state of trance. In his extensive monograph Music and Trance, Gilbert Rouget tual powers. The question of the use of stimulants and hallucinogens is often
offers a detailed review of the use of "soul journey" and other relevant terms in discussed in the context of the problem of the shaman's psychosomatic state.
ethnological literature. H e notes the inconsistent and incoherent use of terms According to some scholars, shamans suffer from hysteria, epilepsy or other
which he argues represent different states in rituals (for the use of trance and nervous disorders. Others deny this, without excluding the possibility that some
ecstasy, obsession and possession, see Rouget 1985: 3-28). EkaxaaiC, - , shamans may be psychopaths, schizophrenics or mentally unstable individuals.
evdeoQ - evxovawapoC, (exstdsis - entheos - enthousiasmos) are terms bur-1 "The shamans existed alone in a world between c o m m o n reality, daily life and
dened with doctrinal, theological and philosophical connotations that should be the beyond.... To be floating in a no man's land like that demands strong mental
considered carefully before applying them to rituals. In Bulgarian literature, the i power - that is why I think that neurotic persons would not be fit for the career
meaning of these terms, which originate precisely from the Balkan region, has \ of the shaman" (Gilbert 1984: 27). As regards stimulants, Shapovalov
been defined and discussed for years in studies on Thracian culture. 7 As regards _ (IIIanoBajioB 2001) identifies two forms of trance, "magical and shamanic".
shamanhood, I entirely exclude the use of EkaxaaiC, and evxovaiaafioC, be- According to him, the similar concepts of narcotic substances and their wide-
cause of their many different doctrinal and theological connotations that have spread use in Africa, America and Oceania are not rooted in shamanistic but in
changed over the centuries, as well as because I believe that every description magical tradition; narcotic trance in shamanhood is a relict: it is "pre-shamanic
of peculiar psychosomatic ritual states requires sound justification of the terms and magical". Shapovalov also bases his arguments on the widespread use of
used. Here, and generally about shamanhood, I use the term trance in a non-spe- the fly agaric among the northern Siberian peoples who practised "household
cific sense, as a general, "metaphorical" term associated with the so-called shamanism". Conversely, the Khanty in Western Siberia ate the fly agaric
transcendental function of trance. In psychology, the transcendental function of "strictly ritually" - only individual persons, including storytellers, did so. Ac-
trance is treated as a manifestation of energy facilitating the passage from one cording to other observers, the "true", traditional way of entering trance is "not
psychological condition to another, as a link between the real and the imagined, with the help of narcotics but through singing, physical movements, biological
as a bridge between rational and irrational data. The transcendental function predisposition and long p r a c t i c e . . . . It is typical of the advanced, later forms of
psychologically connects humans and God or humans with their highest poten- shamanism which eventually replaced narcotic trance" (KyjieM3HH, JlyKHHa
tial through the formation of symbols (CaMioeji3 et al. 1993: 184-185, 153). 1992: 118-120).

7
For more on ecstatic mysteries in which "every participant strives to reach god" (to Shamans travel to the spirit world and seek to gain power over spirits for
reach a higher state) and on enthusiasmic mysteries in which participants introduce god different purposes. Not infrequently, shamans use their powers to help their own
within themselves "through internal moral tensions", see OOJI An. 1986: 147. clan against rival clans and families. The community relationship is fundamen-
40 41
tal in shamanic rites. The Nganasan believe that "that together with the shaman's who in his kin has a whole line of shaman ancestors, is dismembered. ... Many sha-
soul and helping spirits the souls of all participants took a trip to the world of mans are powerful for the reason that there are more bones in their body than people
spirits" (Lintrop 1996b). There is similar evidence for the Nanai: "If some of normally have.... The death of the shaman ... is considered a very serious and impor-
the other people who are present possess some shamanistic skills, they are sup- tant event in the life of the people..." It was clearly of vital importance for each com-
posed to be able to follow the shaman's flight path" (Pentikainen 1998: 33). 8 munity to have its own shaman: "The kin group which, for whatever reason, had no
Shamans themselves embody and symbolize their clan; their power is be- shaman found itself in an unfavourable situation." (Kortt 1984: 291-298, with Refer-
lieved to guarantee the well-being of the whole community. Especially telling ences)
in this regard is the evidence that a relative of the shaman had to be sacrificed if Shamanhood is also regarded as a kinship institution among the Norwegian
the shaman returned from the otherworld with a missing bone, which was con- Lapps, where the shamanic tradition was alive at the beginning of the eighteenth
sidered an omen of death among the community. This unique evidence about century (Pentikainen 1987: 30, 34). A number of studies on the Nanai, among
shamanic initiation comes from Ksenofontov as cited by Kortt: which one family/clan may have several shamans, have shed further light on the
kinship basis of shamanhood and on the importance of hereditary transmission
The initiation represents a procedure ... involving the whole community.
Ksenofontov writes that by the Jakut "he who wanted to become a shaman had to sub- (the information below is from ByjiraKOBa 2001: 32-41). Nanai familial spirit
mit to a special procedure ettenii, i.e. the dismemberment of his body. This procedure helpers are usually inherited patrilineally. In order to increase their power and
is implemented by the souls of deceased shamans, the forefathers of the shaman candi- abilities, shamans strive to acquire more spirit helpers - and do so by stealing
date." In the re-adjoining of the bones, i.e. in the revivification of the body, special at- them. This is also motivated by the concept (found among the Nanai and their
tention is given to the completeness of the bone count: "If a bone is missing one of the kindred Evenk) that "with time and old age, powerful spirit helpers will leave"
close blood-relatives of the shaman candidate must die... For every missing bone the the shaman. Spirit helpers are stolen most often from blood-related shamans
spirits demand" a human sacrifice from among his relatives." Similar conceptions also who do not live and "work" in one and the same place but "travel along the same
prevail.among the Burjat and Tungus and possibly also among other Siberian peoples. paths in the invisible world". Spirit helpers may be stolen in sleep, more often
... It becomes clear that a relationship exists between the skeleton of the shaman candid during shamanic rituals, from relatives who have turned to the shaman for help
date and his community. The report of a Jakut informant confirms that... "If a shaman unaware that they have spirits from the same clan. The relative whose spirit has
apprentice has a bad, insensitive body the evil spirit, it is said, tries to take him away
been stolen may become even more ill or die, and it is certain that he or she will
(i.e. to kill him). The shaman teacher must in this case (in order to save him) sacrifice
never become a shaman. Weak, novice shamans are most vulnerable to theft and
someone for every major bone from his circle of relatives (e.g. a person for the skull,
etc.)." By the Nganasan shaman, "In the ceremony as well as in the trip beyond the death, especially during initiation. If, however, a shaman succeeds in recaptur-
souls of all those present (i.e. the relatives) accompany the shaman. The latter, in his ing his "abducted spirits" (through kamlanie or in a dream), he will take re-
return to this world, must bring all the souls back with him.... Not a single ceremony is venge by starting a long-lasting feud and in-clan shamanic wars. Such rivalry
undertaken without counting all the family members of the shaman.... Their presence and hostility between the shamans themselves and between the spirits of differ-
strengthens the shaman." 'The sitting men frighten the 'evil' (i.e. the foreign) spirit away ent clans exists on principle (Barkalaja 1997). In this context, the evidence that
with their cries so that he doesn't abduct the soul of the shaman"... From this evidence among the Shor, "there cannot be two living shamans from the same generation
it is clear that not only the shaman initiation, but also later shaman ceremonies must be • - • or more than one shaman in the same community; if this happens, then one of
understood as the affair of the whole community... The shaman initiation represents them must die" (IloTanoB 1947: 161), provides further insight into the indi-
not only a dangerous but even a deadly procedure for the whole community.... "In the vidual essence and concept of the shaman as a chosen one.
old times, it is told, seven people of the kin died at the becoming of a major shaman"...
The unity of clan/community/ethnic group/shaman is also represented in
"With many of the summoned, nearly all of the close relatives are lost... for every bone
of his body a blood-relative must die as the price." In the person of the shaman the the ritual accessories of shamans, which are strictly personal and the making of
community (at least the paternal line) is initiated, i.e. broken and joined together again, which is part of their initiation. All objects carried and worn by the shaman rep-
by which the basic idea of the initiation as perfected rebirth ... concerned the shaman resent the specific characteristics of the phenomenon in the relevant ethno-cul-
not as an individual but as the embodiment of his community. Only a great shaman, tural tradition; not infrequently, they are "multiple" forms of one and the same
fundamental contents. The shaman costume is the "dwelling-place" of the spirit
helpers, his or her double, and a sign marking the shaman out as "other". The
8
According to Grim (1983: 12), for Native American Indians "the shaman is ... an in- making of the shaman costume, as of the shaman drums, is a matter for the entire
carnation of the spirit ... and this is felt by everyone. The state of many participants is now
community or clan (Kortt 1984: 298). The cloak of a "great" shaman symboli-
near to that of the shaman himself and only a strong belief that when the shaman is there the
spirit may only enter him, restrains the participants from being possessed in mass." cally represents a wide range of ancient conceptions of the universe as a whole.

42 43
 It contains stylized images of the spirit helpers from different spheres and direc-v Mongol and Korean female shamans to drive out spirits from patients, different
tions of the world. The Yakut call this dress "shaman's horse". The costumes are, types of masks, the metallic circular mirrors (toli) attached to the costume, and
ornamented with different iron objects (plates, bells, chains, etc., Fig. 2).' especially the "mirror" over the chest. "The large circular bronze ... mirrors
A m o n g the Nenets, the iron chains symbolize the paths to the Lower World, represented the eternal interaction of the two cosmic principles (heaven and
while the bells are universally regarded as a dwelling-place for the shaman's earth)... yin and yang, and also the entrance to the world of the dead, world of
spirit helpers (Alekseyenko et al. 1998:109,184). These visual representations the ancestors" (Alekseyenko et al. 1998: 184).
and the shaman costume as a whole "characterize the abilities and properties of Another essential element of the shaman costume is the boots, which often
each shaman, the helping spirits he has, the weapons and tools he uses" (Lintrop i have iron pendants on the upper front part symbolizing the leg b o n e s o f a mythi-
2001: 504). As a rule, the costume is worn next to the skin and indicates the cal deer. "In the context of the symbolism of the shaman's costume as a whole,
shaman's rank. The Buryat tell black from white shamans by the dress; the cloak the right boot was associated with the positive ('sunny') world, and the left boot
of white shamans is light-coloured, while that of black ones is blue. A m o n g the'i with the world of evil spirits" (Alekseyenko et al. 1998: 157, referring to the
Altaians, not all shamans have the right to wear the cloak and the owl-skin' region of the Taimyr Peninsula).
(IIoTaHHH 1883: 53). A m o n g the Northern peoples, the shaman costume is not The shaman's cap/headdress is usually reminiscent of a crown consisting
an obligatory and inseparable part of shamanic rituals, and there are many cases of a metal base with metal "reindeer antlers" attached at the top; it may also
in which shamans shamanize in the dark, naked to the waist. Referring to the in- contain symbols of bird-spirit helpers, and differs for the different types of sha-
terpretation of this as a form of "ritual nakedness" - a practice which is not mans. Most Siberian shamans have long ribbons or streamers hanging from their
found among the Ob-Ugric peoples, for example - Lintrop reminds us that headdress, which restrict their sight irrespective of whether they are in trance
"Inuits and Chukchees were usually half-naked in the warm parts of their dwell- or not. Very often, the rites themselves are performed in a smoky setting (Lintrop
ings ... and a shaman had to differentiate himself from ordinary people by the 1996). Opening inner sight by covering the eyes is not specific to shamanic
means of amulets or belt" (Lintrop 2001: 504). practices only; it is also typical of many divination rites and, generally, of con-
The belief that shamans may have several costumes depending on the num- tact with the otherworld in different parts of ancient Europe and the world.
ber of their reincarnations is c o m m o n to different Siberian peoples. Describing The accessories of the shaman include various other ritual objects, which
the E v e n k in the region of L a k e Baikal, Basilov notes that shamans wore a are specific for each ethnic group and constitute an integral part of shamanic
"bird's" dress when travelling to the Upper World and an " o x ' s " dress when rites. The shamans of the Northern peoples usually m a k e these objects them-
travelling to the Lower World. "The Selkup used the dress of the wild deer when selves, but only after getting permission from the spirits. A m o n g the typical ac-
journeying up, and that of the big bear when going down to the nether world" cessories of the shaman are the so-called "horse-staves" or "horse sticks"
(Pentikainen 1987: 32). The symbolic meaning of the shaman's accessories and (approximately eighty centimetres long) which shamans "ride" on their jour-
the different types of shaman costumes made from a combination of animal skin, neys. The upper part represents a stylized horse-head, the middle part forms the
metal and fabric, are much more complex in Middle Asia. Bird, reindeer, bear knee-joints of a h o r s e , and the lower end is fashioned"into a hoof. Little bells
and other cloaks are made from whole skins or from pieces of skin symbolizing and other objects are tied to the horse-staves. A m o n g the Buryat, the cloak, the
the zoomorphic or ornithomorphic spirit helpers into which shamans incarnate cap and the horse-staves are the chief appurtenances of a shaman. The horse-
during their journeys. The semantic unity ofcostume/spirit helper/shaman is at staves "are usually made of birch-wood; no one but a shaman who has passed
the core of the different incarnations themselves. For example, Nganasan sha- his fifth consecration is allowed to use iron horse-staves" (Czaplicka 1914).
mans are most often "elks". Their costume is made from elk hide, with an iron Buryat shamans use these staves to summon black spirits (Niemi 2001b: 136).
figure of deer antlers on the back, while the upper front part of the boots is remi- Novice shamans are allowed to use only wooden horse-staves, which are cut
niscent of elk feet. The fringed sleeves of the costume symbolize bird wings. The for them the day before their first consecration. They are cut from a birch-tree
costume may also feature bear figures (a she-bear and a he-bear) which sha- growing in a forest where shamans are buried; "The wood for the horse-staves
mans can tie to a sledge during their journeys, goose heads to help them go to the must be cut in such a way that the tree shall not perish" (ArariHTOB, HaHrajioB
Upper World, and bird tails to help them dive when healing people. When the 1883: 43-44). In Southern Siberia, the image of the horse is closely associated
shaman finds the soul of the sick person, he or she seats it on the bird tail and with the Upper World, the sky and the sun, and in many respects echoes the im-
fastens it to the tail with a chain so that it would not get lost on the way back. age of the mythical deer in the cultures of Northern Asia. At the same time, the
A m o n g Mongol shamans, the dwelling-places of helper spirits include the cos- functions and general symbolism of the horse sticks largely coincide with those
tume, the aforementioned ongons, the drum, the ritual fan (dalbuur) used by of the shaman's rod and drum (Alekseyenko et al. 1998: 108,112).

44
45
 The shamans of some Siberian peoples also use a rod during their rites. particular places, with a fireplace in the middle whose fire cannot be allowed
A m o n g the Evenk, "this rod was used in-place of the drum in spirit journeys to go out during rituals, etc. (Alekseyenko et al. 1998:125). During rituals, "the
when accompanying the soul of the deceased along the 'icy' road to the under- 1 shaman sits in the northern corner of the hut, on a reindeer or bear skin that has
world" (Alekseyenko et al. 1998: 111). been placed over a sacred piece of wood or birch or spruce twigs; he must sit in
Another typical element of the shaman's costume which has different func- a space above earth, n o t o n it" (Pentikainen 1998: 34).
tions is the mask (Fig. 3, 4). In Siberia, the custom of wearing a mask when The concepts of the functions a n d essence of shamans as mediators are
performing shamanic rites was already beginning to die out by the mid-nine- manifested in and inform their costumes, accessories and behaviour, as well as
teenth century. Among the Nganasan, the so-called "wooden face" mask is a the attitude of others towards them. It is believed that only shamans are able to
spirit helper assisting shamans on their travels upwards and downwards, as enter and reside in different existential dimensions from various directions, and
well as women in childbirth. W h e n healing, shamans place the mask in a spe- that their presence and rites will transform, irreversibly and positively (apotro-
cial place in the patient's hut and, if necessary, leave it there for some time. paically), every profane dwelling. The Tuvans, for example, believe that the
During a spirit journey, the "wooden face" masks are tied to the tent poles of the evil spirits aza can take the form of a whirlwind a n d invade only those yurts
yurt to the right and left of the shaman if he or she is heading upwards, or placed. where shamanic rites have never been performed. The shaman's state of in-be-
to his or her right and left on the ground if the shaman is heading downwards for tweenness is manifested also in their everyday lives, in the way they are per-
the world of the dead. "Wood masks were used among the Maritime Koryak ... ceived and regarded by the community - namely, as toeing "other": "Generally
to purge kalas (evil spirits) from their winter houses" (Arutiunov, Fitzhugh in the features of a shaman there is something peculiar which enabled me, after
1996). Buryat shamans also use the mask when foretelling the future or appeal- a short experience, to distinguish them from the other folk present.... The eyes
ing for success in the hunt. Among the Evenk, "after the shaman's death, the mask of a shaman have a look different from that of other people ... they are very
was sometimes kept in the family to serve as a protector" (Alekseyenko et al. bright (nikeraqen), which ... gives them the ability to see 'spirits' even in the
1998: 148-149). It is universally believed that a dead shaman "would be very dark" (Bogoras 1907: 116; emphasis added).
dangerous if possessed by evil spirits". According to evidence from the North- Among most Siberian peoples living in small villages with a limited num-
ern Pacific coast, the faces of dead shamans were covered with masks to pre- ber of huts, the shaman's home is usually isolated, on the outskirts of the village,
vent evil spirits from possessing their bodies. "Similar death masks were used near the forest or on a hill on the bank of a river. The surrounding society "often
to cover the faces of deceased people in Siberia in the 19th-20th centuries. The looked upon the shaman as a strange and difficult person, both because he was
Koryak, Even, Evenk and Yukaghir used simple hoodlike leather masks ... to an individualist, and because he ... lived in a dangerous world in a very differ-
cover the face of the deceased in funeral rites" (Arutiunov, Fitzhugh 1996). ent manner from that of a c o m m o n member of the society" (Gilbert 1984: 26).
Shamans keep all their accessories in a sacred sledge, a wooden box-like One of the forms of the shaman's differentness is-the ritual change of sex and
object which they are allowed to use only after their fifth consecration. The sa- androgyny found among Siberian and Central Asian shamans. Such evidence
cred sledge is usually decorated with ribbons, bells, strips of skin, and has vari- can be found even in early descriptions of shamanic rites among the Chukchi,
ous figures, zoomorphic or anthropomorphic, carved or painted on its broad Koryak, Itelmen and Asian Eskimo, the Yukaghir, Yakut, Turkmen and other
sides (ArartHTOB, ^ a H r a n o B 1883: 43-44). If a shaman has no successors in peoples. According to Czaplicka (1914), "The transformed shamans are con-
the family, the sacred sledge, together with all his other accessories, is left in sidered very powerful also, though they exist merely in Koryak traditions." 9
the tundra near the place where the shaman is buried (XOMHH 1981: 22). The The change of sex, which is more common among male than among female sha-
Ket hand it down the male line of the family and regard it as a family fetish. mans, "is in obedience to the commands of Spirits" (Jochelson 1905-1908: 52);
There is evidence that back in the past the Buryat buried shamans with their it takes the form of partial or full change of dress and, occasionally, of
dress, and in Northeastern Asia, with their masks (Czaplicka 1914; Alek- behaviour as well. By order of the spirits, a male shaman may wear w o m e n ' s
seyenko e t a l . 1998: 124). clothes and accessories for a certain period time, for example for several years,
The shaman's hut is another invariable part of shamanic rites. A m o n g the yet still fail to obtain complete transformation. H e may then implore his spirits
Evenk, the men of the family erect a shaman hut exactly as instructed by the sha-
man, where he performs his rituals in the event of great need, danger or death.
The shaman's hut contains the typical symbols and elements of passage, which
9
transform it into a sacred space - metal and wooden figures of spirits placed in For details on androgyny and bisexuality as an expression of the mediatory functions
°f shamans, see Jochelson 1905-1908: 53; Bogoras 1907: 452-455; EacmiOB, HiM3ian>iHeB
!975: 134-135; MapasoB 1992: 317.

46 47
to permit him to resume m e n ' s clothes, but remains obliged to put on women's woman killed by the arrow of the k h a n " (KeHHH-JIoncaH 2000: 80-84). T h e
clothes during shamanic ceremonies. Every transformed shaman has a spirit- Mongols say that the sky spirits of the western direction met in the Pleiades and
husband who is considered to be the.real head of the family. decided to send the eagle to the earth as the first shaman. According to another
According to the myths of origin, shamans are predestined to be here and Altaian legend, "shamans receive their heads (the seat of sur- unusual psychic
there, U p and Down throughout their life and after death; judging from the no- powers) from heaven" (Czaplicka 1914, citing Troshchanski). T h e central fig-
tions of and attitude towards them, shamans belong to this world only physi- ure in Koryak creation myths is Big-Raven, the Koryak's mythical forefather,
cally. If a Siberian shaman wants to depart from life and someone assists them protector and powerful shaman (Krupnik 1996); it is Big-Raven who taught
to do so, "it is not considered to b e a crime. ... In earlier days, shamans could people how to hunt and fish, how to m a k e fire andprotect themselves from evil
not be buried underground like ordinary people. They were buried unattached spirits. Eventually, Big-Raven and his family "turned into stone". Such creation
to the ground, so that the shaman's spirit was free to travel between the layers of myths are quite likely to have led to the popular belief that "powerful shamans
the universe" (Pentikainen 1998: 37, 39). Shamans' tombstones, a symbol of could turn themselves into stone" (KeHHH-JIoncaH 2000: 85).
the upper, of the mediatory, are revered as sacred by the community similarly
to the sacred places dedicated to spirits. In the old days, the Olkhon Buryat
burned and buried their shamans by the road in a mountainpass, at the foot of a
hill or mountain, by springs, on the way from their summer to their winter camp
and back. The burial site, which was believed to protect the area, was prepared
and tended by the shaman's relatives who marked it out with a pile of stones, a
wooden pole, a tree or a bush on which they hung ribbons and horse mane hair.
Unlike ordinary people, shamans "went" to their burial site (boo) mounted on a
horse, their bodies supported by a youth sitting behind them; the horse would be
killed immediately after the shaman's body was burned ()5KaM6ajioBa 1999:
80-85). Scholars believe that burials with horses, including those on the terri-
tory of the Altai Mountains and Tuva, originated in pre^Mongol times and have
their roots in the culture of the ancient Turks (XyaaKOB 2001: 7, with Refer-
ences), among which shamanhood was a late phenomenon (see chapter "Sound
and Ritual Along the Route of the Bulgars").
T h e Balagan B u r y a t believe that the greatest white and black shamans be-
c o m e spirit protectors of the clan after death. Their bodies are burned or placed
in coffins, which are put on trees in a neighbouring forest or on a mountain -
whence "they are called the old people of the mountain". In Yakut belief, great
shamans at death "change into heavenly beings" (Czaplicka 1914). The custom
whereby novice shamans visit the tombstones of their predecessors to obtain
their blessing, the concepts of the origin and death of shamans, attest to a sui
generis form of "heroization" which in these communities is only conceptual,
not doctrinal or theological. Without going into the concepts of possession and
the well-known view that shamans govern the spirits, I will note that it is obvi-
ous that shamanic rituals are dominated by the presence of a spirit- mani-
fested through the shaman's songs, unintelligible or incoherent ramblings, inad-
equate and unusual movements or, in other words, through a psychosomatic
behaviour that does not belong to this world. The idea of this otherworldly pres-
ence and origin is also found in the myths and legends of the origin of shamans
of different peoples. O n e legend has it that "the first Tuvan shaman was a

48 49
 Shamans in the so-called shamanistic communities in Siberia do not use the
tupan but a single-headed frame drum with another ritual profile. As a construc-
tion, this type of instrument is found throughout Asia, Africa and Europe, including
in all Mediterranean cultures. It is an ancient instrument. Judging from extant ancient
paintings, terracotta figures and especially from the Ancient Egyptian tambourine
(saru), its structure, way of holding and of producing sound have not changed sig-
nificantly over the centuries. It has different names and different secular and ritual
UNTUGUN A N D THE "MUSIC" OF SHAMANS functions in the different parts of the world. In the Eastern Mediterranean region,
Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, in the Turkic, Arab and Persian lands, including in
Afghanistan, the membrane is stretched over a frame of various sizes; the frame may
Every folklorist has encountered the problem of naming and etymology in have bells, rings, chains and/or metal discs hanging from the sides; the skin may be
studying rites and rituals. Traditional names of objects, musical instruments, plain or coWi:r;d. This instrument is known as duff, tar (in Arabia), daff/def (Tur-
acts and so on, almost always carry implicit, inherited ritual meanings for the key, Iran and farther to the east), daireb/daira/doira (the Middle East and Central
community that uses them. The name of a particular musical instrument can tell Asia), bendir (North Africa). In Bulgaria it is called daire, and in Greece tambou-
us a lot about it: what kind it is (ideophone, membranophone, chordophone, rine,daires, <&/i (Doubleday 1999:101-102; Marcuse 1975:131-139; Anoyanakis
aerophone), how it is made, whether it is " o w n " or "foreign". The traditional 1979: 132-134). According to Marcuse, in Europe this type of membranophones
perceptions and beliefs of every nation, ethnic group, tribe, clan are also ex- originated in East Mediterranean-cultures (Marcuse 1975:131-132).
pressed in their instrumental organology and traditional music. This also holds
In structure, the shaman's drum is similar to the tambourine, and in the way of
for the different regional names for shamans and their ritual accessories. Even
producing sound - to all membranophones, where the sound is produced by striking
today, the names used to refer to traditional Bulgarian instruments are a marker
the membrane with the hands or other objects. However, it cannot be called either
of regional identity. A typical example is referring to the gadulka1 as a "fiddle"
by the Russian word for tambourine, buben (pi. bubny), as it is in Soviet and Rus-
(tsigulka), i.e. as a "foreign" instrument in the areas of Bulgaria where it is not
sian literature, or by the Bulgarian tupan. It is known under many different names
traditional. In the same line of thought, the most commonly misused term in all
among the different peoples in Siberia. Many of them (the Even, Evenk, Negidal,
Bulgarian publications on shamanhood/shamani.s'm is tupan (pi. tupani; two-
Ulch, Nanai, Udege, Oroch and others) call the shaman's drum untugun (or, deriva-
headed skin drum). Although reading dictionaries of musical instruments is not
tively, untuun, ungtuvun, khunktuun, yntyun, khuntun, etc.). I accept this widely
the favourite pastime of non-musicians, anyone who wants to enter the world of
used authentic name for the instrument and use it as a general term, similarly to the
sound and instruments needs to have at least some basic knowledge of them.
term shamanhood.
There is a group of instruments known in musical organology as drum instru-
ments. As there are many different kinds of drums, writers on the subject al- The untugun is a single-headed frame drum. Its body is often fastened together
ways specify exactly what kind of drum they are talking about. Based on the with metal clamps and bars on the inner side. Marcuse (1975:138-139) thinks that
type of sound-producing m e d i u m and the way sound is produced, the tupan the Tibetan "frame drum on a handle" and "double drum" (more correctly, two-
belongs to the family of membranophones (from Latin membrana), which in headed skin drum) may be prototypes of this instrument in Northern and Central
different folk cultures are made from terrestrial, amphibian, marine or even Asia. The earliest evidence about the shaman's "sieve-like" instrument and its ritual
human materials (Blades 1974). Tupan (most probably from Ancient Greek use among the Samoyed comes from the English traveller Richard Johnson and
T-upTtava/TvpTtavo-u, see chapter "Perke") is one of the Bulgarian names for a dates from 1556: "And the Priest doeth beginne to playe upon a thing like a great
two-headed skin drum with a specific way of producing sound and a traditional sieve, with a skinne on the one ende like a drumme: and the stick that he playeth
playing style in Thrace and on the Balkans. It must be noted that contrary to what with is about a sparine long, and one end is round like a ball, covered with the skin
some Bulgarian authors write about the shaman's drum ("Their tupan is a sin- of an Harte. Then he singeth as wee use heere in Englande to hallow, whope, or
gle-headed skin drum" - KanoaHOB 1995:17), there is simply no such thing as showte at houndes" (Marcuse 1975:138; emphasis added).
a single-headed tupan. And if they find it convenient to use the word tupan for Among the different peoples, the untugun varies in shape and size; it can be
the shaman's drum, they ought to at least put it in inverted commas. oval or round, from thirty centimetres to one metre in diameter. In Eastern Siberia,
these instruments are larger but with a shallower frame, oval, sometimes with a
1
A rebec-like, bowed, stringed instrument popular in the Balkans; known among the handle; in Western Siberia they are round, with a deeper frame but smaller in diam-
Greeks as lyre.
eter. Although they are similar in their conceptual and ritual meanings and func-
50 5.1
 tions, the details of the untugun are remarkable for the variety of forms and re- mars-tiiiir), Chelkan, Kumandin (tutir), western Tuvan (ttitir, similar to the South
I'JP
'ill Ml,I lated concepts among the different peoples. Altaian), Kizhi, Telengit (tiingiir, chalu), Tubalar (tiir, tiingiir, chalu).
CENTRAL SIBERIAN TYPE: oval, medium-sized, approximately thirty to sev-
Among the majority of Siberian peoples ... [at the end of the nineteenth and the enty centimetres in diameter; found in Central and Northern Siberia, to the east
beginning of the twentieth centuries], the buben [tambourine] was used together with
of the Yenisey River.
other shamanic accessories. The Great October Socialist Revolution [the 1917 commu-
Evenk-Yakut variant: found among the Yakut (tiingiir, dungur), Dolgan,
nist coup in Russia] opened up a bright road for the Siberian peoples [?!]... It put an
end to centuries of oppression ... and exploitation of the local population by kulaks and Evenk, and partly among the Yukaghir (yalkhil).
shamans. The reorganization and collectivization in agriculture, the introduction of new Nganasan-Enets variant ("hybrid form"): rounder and smaller than the
equipment... and health care ... the general high growth of culture [?!] destroyed belief previous variants; found among the Enets (peddi, round; fendir, oval), Nganasan
in the power of shamans, lamas and other mediators... (TIpoKorbBeBa 1961: 435) (khfendir, similar to the Enets one), northern Khanty, Obdor Nenets.
FAR EASTERN TYPE: oval, m e d i u m - and small-sized, from thirty to sixty
This sort of texts "in tune" with the political demagoguery of the communist centimetres in diameter; found a m o n g the Nanai (umchufu, unchufun), Ulch,
regime were the price researchers had to pay if they wanted their studies "to see Even (untu), Buryat (khese, ketse; kisen), Dolgan (dungur), Trans-Baikal Evenk
the light of day" in those times. The section on "HJaMaHCKHe 6y6Hbi"/"Sha- (untugun, yntyun, nymkhanki, khunktuun, nylkhangku, khuntun), Oroch (dali,
man Tambourines" in the publication quoted above offers detailed information identical to the Nanai one), Negidal (ungtuun, ungtuvun), and partly among the
about the make, structure, occurrence, images, concepts and interconnections of Yukaghir (yalkhil), Nivkh (kyatso), Chukchi (yarar, yayar), Eskimo (syaguyak),
these instruments in the vast historical and geographic area of Siberia. The Koryak, Itelmen (yayay), Ainu (achok, katsyo).
study contains accurate drawings of shaman's drums from different regions, and Oval, pear-shaped, found in the Trans-Baikal region, the A m u r River Ba-
a map showing the occurrence of the instruments and drumsticks/beaters as sin, along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk; instruments of this type are also found
well as their different names. T h e data below are from the quoted study. to the south, in Manchuria; among the Oroch (untu, similar to the Nanai one),
Udege (unechukhu).
OCCURRENCE, NAMES, AND SHAPE A m u r variant: found a m o n g the Ainu, Nivkh, Udege, Evenk, Nanai
(untugun, ungtuun, khunktuun), and other peoples.
WEST SIBERIAN TYPE: round and oval, thirty to forty centimetres in diameter; Trans-Baikal variant: almost round in shape; oval; found among the Trans-
found in the basin of the Ob River and its left tributaries, and in the tundra to the Baikal and Okhotsk Evenk, partly among the Buryat, Even, Yukaghir and Koryak
west and east of it; found among the Nenets (penzer,pender,penderko, tadibe- (yaryar, yayar, yayay).
penzer), Khanty (penzyar, round; koem, oval; aipenzer, round and small; tinez)
Mansi (koip), partly among the Enets (peddi, round; fendir, oval).
EAST SIBERIAN TYPE: round, up to one metre in diameter; found along the
middle reaches of the O b River to the estuary of the Vasyugan and Vakh. rivers,
and along the Taz River.
Sayan-Yenisey variant: round, approximately one metre in diameter; found
among the Ket (khas), Selkup (pingir, nunga, oval; vargan, w o m e n ' s drum),
Sym Eveiik, Vakh Khanty, eastern Tuvans, Tofalar (tiingUr, dungur), partly among
the Kachin (tiir) and Buryat (khese, ketse; kisen), Mongol (dungur, bar, egg-
shaped; khengrik/khenrine, almost round), Manchu (dzhemchik).
Shor variant: large, slightly oval; found among the Shof, partly among the
Kachin (tiir), Sag'ai, Beltir, Teleut, Chelkan (twokinds: tezimkalaach andochin
kalaach), Kumandin (general name: ttitir).
Altaic variant: similar to the Shor variant, known under the general name
tiingiir2 borrowed from the Mongols; found among the Altaians and Shor (tiiUr,

2 -. » »" • * .. _(.--'.'_»-,.. - •
The name tiingiir and its derivatives is universal in Middle Asia: Manchu tunkun;
Mongol diingiir; Altaian tiingur; Yakut tiingiir, tiiniir, donkiir, etc. Shaman's drum, Far Eastern type, Chukchi (Jankovics 1984)

52 53
 /£%?
/ iC-'=-i--f-e--- >;\\\ \

^ W # w /

a. Nganasan (flpoKocfobeBa. 1961)

Evenk inpoKOi|n.cn:i 1901)

b. Evenk (ripoKocbbeBa 1961) d. Ewnk (Jankovics 19S4)

d. Shaman's drums, Central Siberian type

a.

T h e untugun or shaman's drum is a ritual object whose true "image" sounds regarded as unclean and therefore cannot take part or help in the making of the
and exists as a "cluster of meanings", to use Mircea Eliade's phrase. It is an drum (Islavin 1847: 112). T h e head, the outer and inner side of the drum are
assistant and semantic double of the shaman. The shamans of some Siberian structured and decorated in different ways, and each attribute and structural
peoples have two drums, as well as two costumes, which are almost identical element has its own specific ritual meanings. The membrane of the drum is from
in appearance. Among the Chelkan, for example, the tezim kalaach is a "high" the skin of a wild, and more rarely of a domestic, reindeer or elk, or a bull (among
drum received from the sky spirit, while the ochin kalaach was received from the Yakut) Maritime communities use skin from the underside of a walrus or fish.
the spirits of the ancestral mountains. Enets shamans have one drum for the According to one banal "materialistic" view, the choice of s W n x C O T e s P ° ^ ° i w
Northern and another for the Southern Sky; the older and more experienced they "ancient economic structure of the particular people" (ITpoKOcbbeBa 1961:436). 1
are, the larger their drum (Jankovics 1984: 155). A Selkup shaman may also would add that the choice of skin for the shaman's drum is determined above all
have two drums, "one for his journey up, another down to the Land of the Dead" by the inherited totemic and mythical concepts of the people in question, which
(Pentikainen 1987: 32). also permeate its "economy". T h e practice of making the skin, bones or horns ot
a sacrificial animal "resound" is an ancient practice whose origin and applica-
A m o n g some Siberian peoples, the untugun is m a d e by the shaman's
tion transcends the sphere of shamanhood by far. s
relatives. In line with a well-known mythical code, men m a k e the wooden and
metal parts of the instrument, while women make the skin (as well all fabrics Depending on the local tradition, the membrane of the shaman s drum may
used in the community). A m o n g the Samoyed, however, w o m e n are generally have various images on the underside or surface, or on both sides. These draw-

55
54
 i^KSSqa,

d. Sclkup (Jankovics 19S4)

a. Altai-Kizhi

fe*.

b. Shor
?«gs^^

X
R I: .
.^ ^
y

J
M :
w
m
•z?
isSSS^"
e. Khakas

a. - e. Shaman's drums, South Siberian type

56
57
 • *

.••i

•'•'•-\ \ w
\ \ M
tt '
\ .1.-*
\
Khanlv
v..- ;..i ;1

*:
t
-». ft * ." T| J
s
1
.s
V
Noita, front and back, with handle (Swedish Lapland - Racz 1972, -No. 182, 183)
4

Nenets

Shaman's drums, West Siberian type (npoKorJpbeBa 1961)

ings are strictly specific for each people. They are drawn by the men of the clan r—'
r
on the instruction of the shaman/shamaness, and are passed on from generation ,f .i I
to generation. M e n ' s and w o m e n ' s untuguns differ above all in the drawings on •A ••'
• --"•{
them. One cosmogonic symbol typically represented on the face the drum is the V" • • - • -1
world tree (as a mediator between the different worlds), which reflects the idea
y \ -.. •'-•;. L
of the three-tier structure of the world. "The centre of the world" may be indi-
cated by a small circle at the centre; among the Saami, the natural centre of the w* v *,
gobda/runebom (a kind of shaman drum no longer in use) is the sun. According
to Pentikainen, "Saami folklore knows totemistic mythology" and the represen-
tation of the sun as well as of heliocentrically oriented figures "does not, how-
ever, mean that the Saami had worshipped the sun god, as has been supposed by ••MU
some scholars until n o w " (Pentikainen 1987: 30, 33). Noita, back, with typical solar images Noita, front, with metal ar/?a
The drawings on the drum skin are usually divided into three sections, and handle (Swedish Lapland - and drumstick (Swedish Lapland •
symbolizing the upper world (the sky), the middle world (the earth) and the Racz 1972, No. 186) Racz 1972, No. 179)
lower world. Typical of Uralic drums are pictures of planets, stars, the Milky

58 59
Way, the World tree, human and animal figures (Jankovics 1984: 153-160), Siberia, those of the Khanty, Mansi, Nenets - IIpoKotpbeBa 1961), a fact which
which are thought to be simplified celestial, star maps of the Northern and the however remains unexplained. For the shamans themselves, the inner side of
Southern Sky. On Shor drums the moon is represented on the right and the sun on the drum is its "heart"; the figures depicted there and their esoteric meanings
the left of the upper part (in the Upper World); this corresponds to their revolu- are known only to the shaman and to the maker of the drum. The Lapps carved
tion and direction of movement in the period from spring to autumn, a period in them with a knife and their contents were passed on from generation to genera-
which shamans can travel because the sky has not "frozen" yet. The figures of tion as a sacred tradition of the clan (Pentikainen 1987: 30). S o m e drums have
spirit helpers from the Upper World are also represented in this part ("the higher metal pendants on the inner side; they may vary in number and personify the
a spirit helper lives, the more powerful it is" - KHMeeBa 1998: 137). The shaman's spirit helpers. On the drums of the Khanty, Nenets and other peoples,
upper part of Altaic drums may depict the sky, a rainbow, the sun, stars, the they are attached to seven iron bars symbolizing the seven heavenly circles.
moon, horses, geese, a kam (a shaman ancestor) mounted on a horse. Generally, Altaic drums have little bells, jingling trinkets, and other rattles of iron and
on all Siberian shaman drums celestial bodies are always depicted in the Upper bone attached inside round the rim. According to Potapov (1968: 220), the
World and help orient shamans on their journeys in the "cosmos". According to drawings on the inner side of Tuvan drums are permanent and recurrent while
a number of authors, these drawings reveal one of the most important meanings those on the outer side differ according to the message "from above". The inner
of the shaman's drum as a symbol of the universe. "According to the Kets, the side probably preserves the clan's tradition and its unchanging symbols, while
drum represents the universe, 'the whole earth' as they say" (Jankovics 1984: the outer side represents that which is individual and unique about the particu-
150). Pictures of the shaman's ancestor spirit or spirit helpers (often depicted lar shaman.
across the whole surface of the drum skin), whose form the shaman takes during All shaman drums have a handle on the inner side, usually m a d e of rein-
his or her journeys in the otherworld, are also c o m m o n on Siberian shaman deer horn; the handle may be decorated with little bells and carvings portraying
drums. The Shor depict various figures in the Lower World, such as horsemen the shaman's spirit helpers or the spirit of the shaman's drum. The handle of
who are Erleg's servants, frogs, "a monstrous fish, the largest and most vicious Altaic drums is anthropomorphic. Drums with an external handle attached to
underworld creature ... a snake with an iron head" and nine feet, which helps the outer, lower side are found only in the far Northeast (and North America)
the shaman recapture the soul of a sick person (KHMeeBa 1998: 138). The among the Chukchi and the Eskimo (TIpoKorbbeBa 1 9 6 1 : 4 3 5 , 4 4 8 ) .
colour of the drawings has important symbolic meaning for some peoples; typical The object used to produce sound from the shaman's drum - drumstick/
colours and colour combinations are white and red, white and black, and green drum rattle/paddle - also varies in shape and name. Drumsticks are made of
and yellow. "The Chukchi believe that a change in tone-colour of the drum wood or bone; they may be covered with reindeer hide and decorated at one
while it is being played signifies the coming of gods to t h e m " (The New Grove end with a carved image of the shaman's spirit protector, and drawings on the
Dictionary... vol. 12, (U), 1980: 400). The Mansi decorate also the inner side inner side (of a lizard, a snake; Fig. 6, 7). Some peoples believe that the drum-
of the frame, most often with a bear in black in the L o w e r World and a reindeer stick itself is a snake, and its handle the snake's head. The drumstick of Koryak
in red in the Upper World. The drums of the Ket and of the Selkup are bordered shamans is made of thick whalebone, wider at the end with which the drum is
with a painted edge; the lines inside the edge symbolize the seven heavenly struck, and this end is covered with the skin of a wolf's tail (Jochelson 1905-
rows/sections (Jankovics 1984: 153). This is also how the world is structured 1908: 54). The drumstick is also used in divination and healing rituals, which
according to the Ostyak, who believe that there is one world of the dead, one of are similar in many places. A m o n g the Norwegian Lapps, it was customary for
humans, and five worlds of the gods (of the seven sons and daughters of Father the head of the family to use the drum (runebom) for divination: "Holding the
Heaven and Mother Earth - Lazar 1997: 243). drum in his left hand and the drumstick in his right, he would place a small
The figures on Siberian shaman drums vary in complexity and density. Along object, called an arpa (or triangular piece of reindeer bone decorated with
with traditional cosmogonic concepts, the presence of particular scenes and metal rings and ornaments) on the face of the drum and follow its movement on
figures reflects the strength and powers of the particular shaman, showing which the drum's face. H e might predict a number of things on the basis of this act"
high spirits the shaman may invoke during shamanic rituals as well as whether (Pentikainen 1987: 30; see p. 59).
•he or she can descend to the underworld. The presence of images of certain
animals indicates that the shaman can cure some diseases with their help The shaman's drum is a ritual object-mediator, a syncretic symbol of the
(KHMeeBa 1998: 138-139). N o less important is the fact that some shaman shaman, of their family, and of the cosmogonic concepts of their people. It is the
drums are not always decorated (those of the Nganasan, Enets, Yakut, Dolgan, shaman himself or herself. Shamans' identification with their drum begins from
Evenk, Yukaghir, Nivkh, Nanai, Tofalar) or are not decorated at all (in Western the period of their initiation and lasts till the end of their lives: " W h e n an aging
shaman leaves on his or her final trip, he or she often tries to drown the drum -
60 61
the shaman's soul - in a s w a m p " (Pentikainen 1998: 37). Within two years after to indicate he is ascending into the upper world. He strikes it three times and
they have made the drumstick for their future drum, E v e n k candidate shamans lowers it when he is descending into the lower world" (Rouget 1985: 19, with
see in a dream the reindeer "whose skin will cover their d r u m " (BacHJieBHH References). Among some Siberian peoples (the Chukchi, Koryak, Itelmen, Asian
1969: 251). Buryat novice shamans are not allowed to have a drum and may Eskimo, Nanai), the so-called nuptial spirit helpers, which may also appear in
play only the Jaw's harp. A m o n g the Ammasalik Eskimo, "if he [the candidate animal form, are especially important; the shaman may have sexual intercourse
shaman] wants to provide the rhythm for the chants ... he uses two wooden with them both while awake and asleep. A m o n g the Buryat, for example, this is
sticks struck one against the other" (Rouget 1985: 126, with References). Ac^ represented in shamanic rituals by an increasing speed of drumming accompa-
cording to Bogoras, nied by body movements symbolizing sexual intercourse. "According to some
myths, during their soul flights the shamans ride on the drum like a man rides on
The beating of the drum, notwithstanding its seeming simplicity, requires some awoman" 3 (Pentikainen 1998: 37). D u r i n g t h e i r soul journeys, shamans "ride"
skill, and the novice must spend considerable time before he can acquire the desired
a flying horse, reindeer, elk, symbolized by one or two rods or by the drum.
degree of perfection. This has reference especially to the performer's power of endur-
Ostyak and Evenk shamans may bestride the drum and ride it as if riding an elk.
ance. The same may be said of the singing.... After the performance he must not show
any signs of fatigue, because he is supposed tobe sustained by the "spirits", and, more- Some peoples (Nganasan, Dolgan, Yukaghir, Yakut) have specific oval horn-
over, the greater part of the exercise is asserted to be the work of the spirits themselves. like drums that are similar in structure and symbolic meaning. " T h e Nganasan
... Indeed, all the shamans I conversed with said that they had to spend a year, or even shaman imitated the elk by means of the d r u m scraping the ground with the
two years, before sufficient strength of hand and freedom of voice were given to them drumbuttons like the elk scrapes the ground with its forelegs" (Ojamaa 1997,
by the spirits. (Bogoras 1907:424) citing Dolgikh).

Tuvan novice shamans were taught how to shamanize and dance (how to According to Jochelson, there are twelve raised representations of horns on the
compose their own melody, how to recite and chant to the beat of the drum) by a drum. Sieroszewski says that they are always found in odd numbers, 7, 9, or 11...
powerful and experienced shaman, such as the "bull-shaman" (KeHHH-JIoncaH There is a great similarity between the Yukaghir and the Yakut drum, not only in the
2000: 85). According to Lintrop, iron rattles, iron cross, and general shape, but also in the small protuberances on the
outer surface of the rim, which according to the Yakut represent the horns of the
it is not enough to merely recognize the places and beings of supernatural world. To gain shaman's spirits. (Czaplicka 1914, with References)
full control over the vision, it must be described in words - to sing or retell it. ... Indi-
viduals who are acquainted since early childhood with shamanic tradition have naturally With this horn-like drum Nganasan shamans "could perform rites without
more necessary knowledge for expressing in words their visions than other people. It is wearing ritual costume", similarly to the rod which "was used in place of the
during the initiation period that the devotee acquires most of his songs - descriptions of drum in spirit journeys to the afterlife" (Alekseyenko et al. 1998: 108, 111).
helping spirits and journeys. A son often applies the melodies of his father's or This mutual replaceability is based on the fact that one and the same symbols
grandfather's shaman songs. (Lintrop 1996) and concepts are visibly and invisibly reproduced in different ritual objects and
acts. Multiple symbolism is a principle of expression in shamanhood, giving
T h e spiritual sphere and specificity of shamanic rites is represented in
rise to multiple variants of all shamanic accessories which can therefore ac-
every single component (song, speech, dance/pantomime). In this unity, the sha-
quire additional meanings.
m a n ' s drum is least thought of or functions as a musical instrument. T h e explicit
The time at which shamanic rites are performed depends on their pur-
and hidden meanings vested in the shaman's drum and other accessories come
pose and on the shaman himself or herself. If the shaman is not strictly a "white"
alive in shamanic ceremonies. T h e drum beats "awaken" the spirits, summoning 0r
a "black" one, the preferred time is in the evening and at night, since "the
them, addressing them, appealing to them; "Sometimes the shaman must pray
force of the shaman's spirit is stronger, when all this takes place in darkness".
and beat the drum a long time before the spirits come; often their appearance is
The kamlanie is always performed around a fire, outdoors or in the shaman's
so sudden and so impetuous that the shaman is overcome and falls down"
yurt, and commences with the heating of the drum over the fire in order to
(Czaplicka 1914, citing Sieroszewski). The drum invariably accompanies the
shaman on his or her journeys to the various worlds. "Usually the shaman con-
ducting the ceremony must, with the help of his drum, guide each reindeer's The dimensions of these concepts also transcend shamanhood. In a Sumerian text the
spirit individually to the lower or upper world, directly to the addressee, that is goddess Inanna bestows drums to her people of Uruk. "A nude erotic scene depicted on a clay
Plaque from Larsa (c.2000-1600 B.C.E.) shows a male playing a lyre and a female holding
to the deity the reindeer was offered to" (Barkalaja 2000). " A m o n g the Xingan
vand shaking?) a frame drum while they have sexual congress" - Doubleday 1999:106. (For
Tungus the shaman vigorously strikes his drum three times and raises it in order "'ore on the identity and symbolism of the "drum-deity", see chapter "Perke").

62 63
"animate" it. The heating of the drum is followed by a "light tune with the of the melody, which helping spirit was actually acting" (Lintrop 1996b). As
drumstick. ... The beats gradually become stronger" (Taksami 1998: 23). The regards the words, improvisation means that shamans are free to invent their
timing, kind and content of the songs that follow depend on the purpose of the own lines while drumming depending on their "conversations" with the spirits.
ceremony, the shaman himself or herself, and of course on the will of the spirits. During shamanic ceremonies they often speak in a "secret" language which
Generally, there are two types of songs in shamanic rites. A m o n g the Nenets, sounds incoherent and unintelligible to the others. A m o n g the eastern Khanty,
these are "magic songs" and "shamanistic narrative songs" (songs which con- the shamans' speech as well as whole strophes of their songs are unintelligible
tain stories about the shamans and mythological entities - Niemi 1998: 72-77); even for older people in the community (KepoKH 2001: 78, 81). This applies
among the Nganasan, there are short, "dialogous" songs involving guessing or especially to travel songs, when shamans describe their experiences and sights
divination (common to all Nganasan shaman seances), and long songs consist- in the Upper or the Lower World.
ing of more than 100 lines, which are "distinctively monologuous ... less un-
An informant told me that the song had been highly figurative and artistic, "like a
derstandable than short ones ... containing the lines referring to the inner rea-
poem", and the appropriate words were "given" to the shaman. Even though the words
soning of the shaman/helping s p i r i t — On the base of published materials I may-
of the song were intelligible, the informant was not able to make out its,content and
confirm that these sorts of guessing or divination were c o m m o n to all Nganasan meaning. "Only shamans and a few old men can understand the songs", he com-
shaman seances" (Lintrop 1996b). mented. The old men listened to the song with great concentration and asked the sha-
Shamanic songs, as all ritual songs of the Siberian peoples, are character- man to repeat certain parts of it. The song was,discussed for about ten minutes, then
ized by improvisation. Whereas shamanic songs have more or less fixed words, the shaman resumed singing and drum-beating. In like manner, the cycle was repeated
they are free in tonal structure and do not have a fixed melody (HOBHK 2002). several times. (Barkalaja 2000; emphasis added)
T h e initial melodic motif is repeated over and over again, often in a different
The sequence and choice of songs depends entirely on the shaman's con-
form. T h e melodies do not have a strophic structure, and the length of the me-
dition, i.e. on the world in which he or she is in at the moment. Chukchi shamans
lodic lines is different from that of the text lines. The vocal intonation is often
often end their seances with the same song with which they began them. For the
untempered. "Among the Buryats... unlike the shaman's invocation song which
Nganasan shaman, the choice of a particular melody is determined by "the ne-
'obeys musical rules' the song for the journey is a formless and continuous
cessity of winning over of this or that spirit" (Graceva 1984: 196-197). Gener-
sequence of sounds, intersected by moans, sighs and cries" (Rouget 1985: 338,
ally, the vocal performances in shamanic rites do not have a fixed order and
with References). The singing is accompanied by constant drumming, which
sequence. This "one-man show ... includes episodes drawing upon the most
often drowns out the melody and the words. Acoustically, this is also due to the
varied musical styles: songs, recitatives, invocations, spoken passages, dia-
way the sound is produced: most Siberian shaman drums are large in diameter
logues, imitations of animal cries or sounds of nature and other onomatopoeias,
and have a deep, resonating sound; shamans often hold the d r u m against their
and voice disguises" (Rouget 1985: 129-130; emphasis added). T h e shaman's
chest or above their head, which makes the drumbeats resonate strongly through
psychosomatic behaviour itself is "improvised and does not follow a strictly
their upper body. Shaman's drums are mostly beaten at the centre, but "the Es-
fixed pattern" QKopHHiiicaa 1997: 207, according to data and field studies
kimo as well as the Chukchee beat the lower part of the drum. ... T h e Koryak
from different regions in Siberia). Shamans primarily "play out extensive dia-
drum also is struck from below, and is held in a slanting position" (Czaplicka
logues and scenes" of events "along their journey" (HOBHK 2002), employing
1914, with References). T h e frequency and speed of the beats are not "met-
various vocal devices to express their transformations (whistling, falsetto, hoarse
ronomic" but change constantly, accelerating or slowing down depending on the
and nasal sounds, animal sounds like growls, grunts, snorts, etc.). This is also
direction and situation of the shaman's "journey". In other words, the tempo in
confirmed by Triinu Ojamaa in the following description of an almost four-
shamanic vocal and vocal-instrumental performances likewise varies and does
hour-long Nganasan spell consisting of three episodes (= three journeys of the
not follow any rules. H e r e melodic and rhythmic improvisation means free-
shaman) and designed to find out how long the shaman's "patient" would live:
d o m of choice in combining the different components, such as song, rhythm,
movements and sequence of songs. Irrespective of the shamans' creative free- All the-melodies performed during the spell belong to the shaman's helping spirits
dom, these components are traditional in origin and essence, and specific to the a
nd guardian spirits. These melodies could be considered to be the personal melodies,
people to which they belong. Those present at a shamanic seance who know as they are namedafter the spirits' names. In the present time the Nganasan don't asso-
how it will proceed may repeat or intone without words every line of the sha- ciate the genesis of songs with the spirits. The songs are considered to be created by the
m a n ' s incantations. "Each helping spirit of a Nganasan shaman had the melody shamans themselves. ... The same melody may have different functions during the
of his own. So the people knowing the tradition well could decide on the basis practice. In the exposition of the show the melodies act as call signs, i.e. the singing of

64 65
these melodies is expected to fetch their owners. According to the Nganasan shamanis- accompaniment is not always straightforward or s i m p l e . . . . Although the dance
tic ritual, the call signs are syllabilized in a nonsensical way. Some peoples, such as the
and musical performance can take place at the same time, their individual rhyth-
Ostyak, have the instrumental call signs which are performed on string instruments....
mic structures may be quite independent of each other" (Niemi 2001a: 156,
[The] 1st travel episode is accompanied by the song in the melody o f . . . the song of the
referring to the Selkup).
she-bear, which works as the travel song. ... The Nganasan shamans cast spells in the
sitting position. Standing up is the sign that the journey is going to begin. In the 1st travel In some cases, the shaman may alternate and associate a particular rhythm
episode the' shaman imitates the elk. The expressive transformation starts with the walk with a particular moment of his journey: "The drum was held alternately up
on the spot that is accompanied by the bows (i.e. the shaman in the shape of the elk towards the sky and down towards the earth; while the drum-stick was held up,
tries to find the right path), and ... imitates the grunts of the elk. ... Next, the shaman he beat free rhythm, whereas while it struck the drum from below, each third
imitates the flight of the swan and the uttering sounds of the swan. ... After the travel stroke was stressed. ... Thus the shaman beat the drum, alternating different
episode the shaman sits down and starts telling the stories about what he has seen on his rhythms, until he began to sing, using free rhythm for accompaniment" (Barkalaja
journey. ... In the 2nd travel episode the shaman imitates the bear.... His movement is 2000, referring to the Khanty).
accompanied by ... meaningless words, or the shaman's words as the comment says. GeneHl;--, ''thinking" in terms of definite, repeated rhythmic stereotypes is
... After the bear dance the shaman starts imitating the elk. The walk on the spot be-
not typical of Siberian shamanhood and, where and if it occurs, it is considered
comes more energetic, and finally becomes the run on the spot. ... These movements
to be accidental and improvised. W h e n I heard very short but clear rhythmic
are accompanied by the imitating of the coughs of the elk ... In the following episode
configurations with unequal parts (of the 7/8, a, b type) in some performances,
the shaman says that he walked along the crooked path, and that he needs flyers, i.e.
the birds as the helping spirits who could lead the way when he happens to lose it. Next my Finnish colleague Jarkko Niemi, a long-time researcher of the Nenets, was
there is the most long-lasting and the most emotional journey which starts with the find- adamant that such instances were purely accidental. In his observations on the
ing of the right path like the previous episodes did. It goes like this: the shaman bows Buryat and Tuvan, Tim Hodginson writes the following: "We also noticed that
and straightens his back, and looks around searching with his arm concealing the eyes. the accents produced by a shaman playing the drum followed n o clearly dis-
Then he beckons forward with his arm whereas his look is irresolute; next he retreats; cernible pattern. ... A musicologist in Novosibirsk tried to convince us that
then he picks his steps forward again. His-movements are unrhythmical, and the prac- the shamans were deliberately playing in constantly varying meters of 1 3 , 7 or
tice resembles a pantomime. Then he stops short and hits the ornament worn round his 9.... It seemed to us that this was most unlikely, and conversations with shamans
neck (it is the figure of the helping spirit) with the drumstick for he had been shown the later confirmed our view that accents are used freely during shamanic drum-
way. Then he gives the drum to the assistant and goes down on one knee, rocking his ming" (Hodginson 1996).
body to and fro; then he stretches his arms out with the palms upward, and starts beck-
In practice, shamans rarely shamanize alone. They often have an assistant,
oning. ... When singing the shaman rocks himself unrhythmically. His gestures are hesi-
tant and his glances back are anxious.... Next the shaman sings that he is a bear... and a figure that somehow remains overshadowed by the shaman in most studies on
he imitates the roaring of the bear (to drive away the evil spirits).... Then the shaman in the subject. The assistant/assistants may be a member or m e m b e r s of the
the shape of the bear becomes the shaman in the shape of the goose, and its flight is shaman's family or audience, or a young, novice shaman (XOMHH 1981: 15,24-
expressed by the imitating of flaps of the wings, by the sudden lifts of the heels, and by 26). The initial contact with and the melody calling the spirits are often per-
making circles by the hips.... Then the goose becomes the bear again, and the roars of formed by the assistant. The assistant's functions and tasks indicate that in many
the bear and the shamanistic words are uttered alternately.... While the movements of cases the shaman cannot perform the kamlanieby himself or herself. ("After the
the birds and the animals are imitated only in travel episodes, the sounding imitations shaman has entered his trance by chanting and drumming, his assistant takes the
appear in some other kinds of episodes, too. ... After the show the shaman has to drum and continues the drumming, both for maintaining the shaman's state of
gather all the helping spirits together, and "put them to sleep". The movements by which ecstasy and for controlling the behaviour of the audience" - Rouget 1985:129-
the shaman expresses his transformations are widespread among Siberian peoples, i.e. 130, with References). Khanty shamanic rites also show that the two figures
the different peoples imitate the same objects in the same way. (Ojamaa 1997, describ-
operate in partnership ("one of the renowned local shamans ate amanita while
ing a spell performed in 1990)
another beat the shaman's drum/Khanty kuijyp" - Barkalaja 1997). Korean
shamanesses have an assistant too; they differ from Siberian shamanesses in
Shamanic rituals are a typical example of ritual syncretism, of unity of
costume, ritual accessories and ways of music-making: "Dressed in a volumi-
inner vision and behaviour, as well as of the non-autonomous functioning of
nous red robe with rainbow-coloured sleeves and a red belt, she steps into a
the sound component. Shamans combine song, rhythm, movement, speech in
shrine. Holding a folding fan in her left hand and brass bells and a cymbal in her
different ways every time, depending on the purpose and function of the particu- n
§ht, she starts chanting, all the while jumping and dancing, to the beats of a
lar ritual and journey. In shamanic rituals, "the relationship between the rhythm
of the shaman's dance movements and that of the singing and possible drum

66 67
chang-gu (an egg-timer-shaped Korean traditional drum) played by her man- for throat) refers to a peculiar kind of "short songs" without words performed
partner" (Introduction to Korean Folklore; emphasis added). in different parts of Asia andby different peoples (Mongol, Tuvan, Uralic Bashkir,
T h e Nganasan s h a m a n ' s assistants (tuoptusi) are also from his or her Karakalpak, Kazakh; by epic singers in Uzbekistan, in Buddhist monasteries in
family: Tibet, Japan and China, in northern India; for more on throat-singing in Tibetan
monasteries, see Tran 1999: 130). "Throat-singing" is a singing technique in
[In shamanizing seances observed in 1976] the original call to the beings of the
which a single vocalist produces two distinct tones simultaneously: one tone a
spirit world came ... from his assistants - tuoptusi. In two cases these were wives, in
one a son and a brother, and in another one just a son. Each of them began by singing a low, sustained fundamental pitch similar to the drone of a bagpipe, the other one
wordless melody belonging to one of the most intimate spirit-helpers... [in one seance] or a series of overtones which resonate high above the drone and m a y be musi-
... representing a reindeer serving the shaman... Then tuoptusi the brother addressed cally stylized to represent such sounds as the song or the whistle of a bird. In
the shaman as a reindeer and gave him a task. The- shaman received the mission by shamanic throat-singing the overtones "represent" the shaman's contact with the
means of a drum... [and] began his singing as a reindeer.... [H]e imitates [?] individual spirits, and the drone his or her physical presence on earth. Some M o n g o l sha-
songs of the "spirit" world beings. [In another seance:] One of "the spirits" appeared ... mans throat-sing also when climbing the toroo, at the same time beating the
in the form of a certain melody. Then the change of the drumming rhythm made the drum (Tran 1999: 130; Levin, Edgerton 2001; CD: Tuva. Voices from the Land
tuoptusi interfere ... in order to prevent the spirit from making the shaman's behaviour of the Eagles. PAN 2005 C D © 1991 Paradox).
dangerous for himself.... Thus, the tuoptusi was compelled to act on his own, begging
the spirit to go away and leave the shaman alone. (Graceva 1984: 196-198) As regards the "music/music-making" in shamanic rites (which I deliber-
The assistant's involvement at crucial moments of the shaman's journey - ately put in inverted commas), I w o u l d like to generalize, and m a k e several
by singing and drumming, as well as by preparing the shaman's drum itself important points. The first applies to the specificity of shamanic rites, which
before a seance - presupposes skills that place the assistant in a "high" position can only provisionally be associated with "music" in the m o d e r n sense of
parallel to that of the shaman, although the assistant's position is not strictly the word, especially as understood by "outsiders". The typical improvised
regulated and constant. Ritual substitution and duplication, i.e. the representa- character of the sound, drumming and movement, the thinking in terms of "lines"
tion of identical or similar contents at different levels in concepts, objects and and motifs as well as the freedom in combining them take a seemingly chaotic
acts, are a principle in shamanhood, which suggests that the assistant may well form that is adequate to the course of the ritual itself, to its high degree of
serve as the shaman's ritual double. In the same context, the participation of unpredictability and individuality in the different, successive performances.
female assistants in shamanic ceremonies is part of the general question about Precisely this syncretism is represented also by a specific vocal expression
the role of women in this traditional culture as well as about the antagonism which personifies the different "images" and situations along the shaman's jour-
between the masculine and the feminine principles found in various rituals ney's - quite often through an untempered sound. Generally, improvisation -
of the Siberian communities. 4 A m o n g the Saami, for example, the family drum vocal, instrumental and physical - is a distinctive feature of shamans. 5 Almost
(runebom) was taboo for women, who were forbidden to touch it so that it without exception, the shaman's improvisation is associated with his or her
would not hurt them and even avoided "the holy corner" of the hut where the people's folk conceptions of the otherworld and the idea of the shaman's flight
drum was kept. During seasonal migration, families first took their runebom to to the Upper or the Lower World. In fact, the situation of "flying" clearly re-
their new settlement - by a different path or in the last sledge. "Women were not flects the shaman's relationships with the spirits whose appearance wholly de-
allowed to follow the path by which the family's men had taken the drum to its termines and shapes his or her behaviour. This ideal coincidence of substances
new place" (Pentikainen 1987: 30). Tuvan and Mongol shamans perform during !s expressed not only physically but also through the sound transformation of the
healing rituals the so-called "throat-singing"; this form of contact with the spir- shaman singing "spirit songs". According to evidence about rites in the basin
its is taboo for women as it is believed it may cause infertility (Levin, Edgerton of the Irtysh River, cited by Barkalaja (1997), there are cases "where it was not
2001). The term "throat-singing" (from khodmei/khoomii, the Mongolian word the shaman who sang at the ritual, but the mushroom spirit, or the shaman merely
repeated the songs sung to him by the spirits of the mushroom". T h e concept of

4
Among the Khanty and the Mansi, for example, only men may climb to sacred sites,
which are taboo for women; in community-wide sacrificial rituals, women are forbidden to 5
In South America it may be a feature distinguishing shamanic from other types of
eat of the heart and tongue of the reindeer dedicated to the supreme god (Numi-Torum) as s
°ngs in one and the same community: "Arawete dance music contrasts with shaman's music
well as to step onto the spot splattered with the blood of the sacrificial animals (Barkalaja °y having fixed rhythmic form with short texts, repetitive melodic line, and a division ; n two
1997; Leete 1997). parts" - Seeger 1988: 36.

6& 69
 m

the melody or sound of an instrument or vocal as the "voice" of the otherworld sensical syllables: "A musical event is most meaningful when it is heard in its
is a well-known/o/Aioric reality found among different ethnic communities and own cultural context. Because music is not an international language... Fortu-
in different periods of history, which is certainly not limited to the sphere of nately, music does seem to be a universal need" (Malm 1977: 209; emphasis
shamanhood. 6 added). N o matter how the ritual contents and their possible parallels are inter-
Various aspects of the tradition of the Siberian peoples and shamanhood preted, the musical stock and intonation in rituals are always a part and
itself allow looking for a more ancient and wider cultural and territorial con- product of the particular traditional context/culture. A n d the ritual behav-
text. Referring in this connection to the Tibetan Bon religion, Tran writes the iour of Siberian shamans is an expression of the specificity of the "musical
following: "The central technique of shamanism, found also in Tibetan Bon, is thinking" (in terms of structure, form, expression) of the particular c o m m u -
the use of a religious 'flight' to the world beyond, which is induced by means of nity. At the same time, the existence, to one extent or another, of universal
music: drumming and singing. But although this technique seems consistent with; features in shaman performances on a territorially wider plane is determined by
shamanic ideology, it seems possible that the more basic and historically ear- the single nature of the shamanic rites themselves and their sound symbol-
lier practice is simply the use of music to call spirits to the shaman, the idea of ism among Siberian communities. According to Niemi's observations, Siberia
flight being a later elaboration" (Tran 1999: 135). is a region with its own musical style:
In parenthesis, one may add here Tolbert's observations on the similar
functions, concepts and means of expression of shamans and lamenters in the There are some universal features in the music cultures of Western Siberia that are
Finnish-Karelian tradition. Laments (including laments in the Siberian "bear- common to Arctic and Sub-Arctic cultures in general: (1) musical expression centres on
feasts") are rooted in the "matriarchal cult of the bear Mother. ... It is certain solo singing, with group performances rare or not intended to be thoroughly coordinated
musically; (2)... musical instruments are almost non-existent or of very marginal im-
that laments are very ancient phenomenon and most likely antedate shamanism."
portance (the Khanty and Mansi are an exception to this 7 ); (3) the tonal range used in
The two phenomena are based on the same animistic and mythical concepts,
the melodic structures of the songs tends to be quite limited; (4) the musical pulse, i.e.
expressed also by a similar stylistic intonation. Tolbert points out that the "trans- the organization of the musical beats, can be simple, complex or almost absent; (5)
portation" of the human soul through laments is performed by an ambivalent when sung, the spoken language turns into a kind of sung language, with specific rules
figure which antedates and transcends the sphere of shamanhood in her role and of versification and musical coordination In the absence of a musical pulse, the lan-
functions. The lamenter is a mediator who in a "trance-like state leads the souls guage used in the songs becomes one of the most important factors in structuring the
of the dead to their new home ... brings back messages ... and acts as a messen- musical expression. It is also important to realize that, due to the absence of musical
ger between the worlds". In lamenting, "the pitches are not fixed ... rhythm is instruments with physically fixed and stable tonal models, the pitch structures are not
very irregular, following the irregularities of the improvised lament text. ... intended to be exact in the Western sense. (Niemi 2001a: 154)
The pitch, mode and phrase structure may become stable only after several
Similar observations have been made about the Nganasan singing style:
minutes of lamenting, a feature that has also been reported for Eurasian shaman
singing. ... The flexible, unstable structure of the lament (an inversion of the [T]heir songs (with the exception of ritual songs) are solo songs ... both the melody
straightforward performing style of other Karelian musical genres)" is an ex- and the text have a strongly improvisational character. ... A low tessitura, unchanging
pression of successful "transportation" and contact with the otherworld, be- dynamics, and lack of metrical organization - these are the features that make the
lieved to be "a mirror of this world". Tolbert stresses that the laments them- Nganasan manner of singing similar to speech. This impression is deepened also by the
selves are an expression of great inner power and mastery, ridiculing-Ortner's circumstance that singers often switch smoothly over from song to speech and then
view "that women, because of their biological reproductive role, are perceived again from speech to song. (Ojamaa 2003: 6)
as closer to 'nature' while men are seen as closer to 'culture'"<Tolbert 1990,
with References).

I would like to return to the specific "musical" aspects of shamanic rites by

quoting Malm's words regarding Arctic incantations with short verses and non-

6
Seeger 1988: 34, 36; Rouget 1985: 113, with References; for similar concepts in
Romanian folklore, see Diculescu 1995; for similar concepts among the Bulgarians, see 7
For more on the "primitive" musical instruments of the Nganasan (whistles, whirli-
C&OJI B., HeiiKOBa P. 2000: 224-225.
gs, bows), see Ojamaa 2003: 6.

70 71
 Hill

IH
HI The shaman song of a female shaman Salyander Seven pame-spirits I have seven helpers
(Niemi 1998: 178, No. 49) come here (for help?) Make my head
•I come (here)! lighter.
J) =252 "ebl-Vebl-n
HI Seven youngest pame-spirits There is also a heavenly father (helper),
111 come (here)! to me words
9r—r-
ill nil i -o- Come (here)! tell, please, (father).
4 4 4*
ra - (xa) ye - xei xe - xe - xe - xei. A burbot's broken skin The burbot's broken skin
Jllil
[filliii is my helper (also). I grabbed into my hands.
iiii ft J hj m n ^ I took it in my hands. It becomes of no need for me, I beat it,
Seven parne-spirits, I take it into my hands.
ta- lya- ya- da" yc - xci xc - xc.
the youngest, Heavenly father, tell me,
In come tome! (promise me) your word (sincere)!...
lii'iii
In if : :
H 7 w ^ H 4 4 4*j
-hi d 4 M df ~4
li'llll nyo-y(i)-du(ng)' ko -6a ya - myi-(xei) xc - xe - xei.
nc- lo- rye-
Selkup shaman song (Niemi 2001a: 165)
ill
5i J -12)
y - ^ 7 t 3 A
111"1'1 nya -d(a) - ma - da(m).., £ E m
Ill y~y~af~-~rao<: P P P P
1 lul ijf-jtymjn- bSfiKMBj), 'ky-7f-m jm-nfl-Za •nt^jay.
{H» 4—4 4* " " 4'J 4b4— -#*- -0"- • B>
I""1"! I S
IIFI s^ 'vV^ ^i i 4 *4 *L._fy —
nyo-y(i)-du(ng)' ko -bam' ne - kal - nga - dam' ye - xc - xe - xe - xei. i ^ M
|iiii'iii g g g t r
,B ly- 2y <?sr-<jif mt/-M ait'- at mf-ta hj-nm).
I Hi;
'I >'|l Ri
p J f l - M i n K*
!•• iij U S a i a r a bSg £S
HJiinJ w TJ—Zt—li—fit
u u i r c r ^ ^ g
syiw-do(m)' pai-nci ye - xei xe - xe - xei.
|ligi Jji-2jf fer-q0j-m tt,-Ta let-tot-m-iyGa-cg,m/ - to wff-qfaji.-ftt tttj-ta (ja0
111 B«j—1 \ C
I n M J>J
m i
~MZ*:IX
111II & P # ^ m
syun -s(a) nye-w(a)" ye - xei xe - xe -xe - xci, qer-(ff it-op my-ia saf-Qsy-WaA
!Ij
I II B
Fill'III 5
lllll £ «—#i H w
^ y <*>
ta - lya - ya - da" ye - xe - e - xei, sS-jjan/ my-la Imp, miff-My-a to ay), Hi- ps - fm- cy - ya-15; <krj,
,C
n A ^ p j J »1rH*—p
II I" I j W J . n j @
¥ K ? tzf ^ j J J « ^ ^: sy
|il "lul If] if- ^3 ay-/a p3!-% Ui-gtst'-U/wn-CB,
*/*- tea rtf-i$ sy-ta
1
*| i i syiw - do' nga-ngei nya - ta - n(a) - wa" ye - xc - xe - xe - xei, c
B M
m w
fa-jwf-qjrf- l&
nge - wa - ko - myci xe
The formative role and importance of words in Siberian songs and rituals
B °an also be seen in the detailed descriptive character and development of
'he plots - in the long storylines in which shamans describe their journeys, in
I>I in syi- byim-chye- da" ye-xefci xe-xei..
iniiili the sung invocations and appeals to spirits, in the long bear-songs. Generally, in
»-nl i«p 72
• ii'i i| 73
i -ii iLi
iiin• 111
the past as at present, various invisible forces are invoked, and orally transmit- tic devices a n d expressive means. In shamanhood as in the other verbal gen-
ted myths and legends about the origins and creation, about high and low spirits, res, the content is expressed in "song or in mixed recitative-song form ... and
etc. are played out and chanted in Siberian communal and clan rites and offer- this type of monologic chants usually have a formulaic character.... Among the
ings. Khanty bear songs, for example, describe how the bear was let down on Evenki, the rhythm and melody of shaman songs are set by an introduction to the
earth, its life in the forest, the arrival of a hunter (who, too, is a mythical person- song which is then repeated many times as a refrain. It is precisely these intro-
age), the hunt and the killing of the bear, how the bear is taken to the village and ductions/refrains that also organize the musical fabric of sung monologues in
offered food and drink to propitiate it, etc. (Lintrop 1996c). Detailed recreation the epic genres of Evenki folklore, where every hero or group of characters
of mythical situations and concepts is an essential part of Siberian folktales and have their own l e i t m o t i f (Novik 2002; emphasis added).
shamanic rituals describing every "event" along the shaman's journey; in them A specific phenomenon found among the Chukchi, Nganasan, Enets, Nenets,
shamans may also engage in long monologues-dialogues with the spirits. The is the so-called "soul melody" or individual/personal songs, which everyone
bear-feast is "stylistically" and functionally very similar to shamanic rituals - composes for themselves. According to information from the 1970s, every
in calling spirits for the welfare of the whole community, in its dialogues, pan- Nganasan has a "self-portrait" song of their own, destined to accompany them
tomimes and dances for success in hunting and fishing and protection from ill- and bring good luck all their life. Someone singing somebody else's melody is
ness, in its improvised sound. Bear-feast songs for calling spirits and deities believed to be appropriating part of the owner's vitality of their innermost be-
also describe in detail various deities and spirit-mediators "present" at the ing (similarly to the stealing of spirits among shamans) and can expect punish-
feast. "Spirit songs" are performed not only by shamans but also by storytellers ment from its owner. Individual/personal melodies "have no firmly fixed text.
and singers among the Nanai, Nivkh, Yakut, Dolgan and other peoples (HOBHK Its owner improvised a text corresponding to a situation arising during its per-
1999: 7). The structure of the different songs for calling spirits is the same: "all formance ... allowing considerable freedom for improvised music and rich
consist of three main parts, where the names and epithets of the spirits are melody ornamenting" (Graceva 1984:195). This type of melodies is character-
enumerated in the first, the appeal is made in the second, and the sacrifice that ized by "uneven length of the melody lines, the absence of regular meter, speech-
will be offered to them is announced in the third part" (HOBHK 2002). like rhythm and intonation, and the abundance of quasi-glissandos and glissandos.
M a n y authors note the similarities between narratives about the sha- ... The texts are composed by the owner of the song, but the melody may have
man's journey and narratives about epic heroes. "Sayan-Altai epic heroes, been inherited from one's parents" (Ojamaa 2003: 13).
similarly to shamans ... have a mediatory function and the ability to travel to
other worlds." Altai magic tales, as well as shamanic rites (in Southern Sibe-
The adult individual song (Niemi 1998: 121)
ria), begin and end with specific, stereotype verbal formulas. Stereotype verse
expressions and alliteration are a distinctive feature of the songs and tales of all
, ji =164 "m"=c§i^i
Siberian peoples. Both storytellers and shamans create their tales and songs
A ^***r _. _ B Snug
during the performance itself. "Entering the epic world, a storyteller, simi- *
larly to a shaman, relates events in the first person ... himself turning into the g~*nr :§!=pt
character" of the story; according to informants, the storyteller "sees and knows i P
le - ta - re* man-tea -nyi -wei, Nga - Syu - mye-rei man-tei - nyi -wei'
everything" (according to information about the Buryat, C a a a n o B a 1997, with
f-m p*nr
References; HOBHK 1999, w i t h References; T a u b e 1984: 350). B e c a u s e sto-
<l
rytellers are i m a g i n e d as "travelling", it is believed that interrupting the story T™w * al " 0 ti
w -4~™m — m ^ pi £** - I -4
will incur the wrath of the spirits or heroes. In South Siberian Turkic legends, -syi - wei nye-myei se - ra nye -myei, nyo-nei syo-dow'xa - fna'-
? ya-dow",
storytellers who forget certain details or episodes or interrupt their story may B
be punished by the spirits or bogatyrs (heroes) with death. Similarly to sha-
mans returning from the otherworld on a grey goose or white hare, at the end of £ \^jy*
M *
the story storytellers return from the world of tales on a white hare or swimming I *nya - byi nyo-ngei he -we - xa - now"
out of water. They are believed to be clairvoyant and are called "masters of the
spirits" in some parts of Siberia (Ca^ajiOBa 1997, with References). T h e tale
genre and shamanhood in Siberian traditional cultures have inherited com- w—^Tr ^~*ii ^ p -0-
* &
m o n conceptions and behavioural models represented in their ideas, stylis- ta(-xa}-de - by*-row" yi -ryi - ko - row", pyir -cha - ko-row" xi - no'4 - lyi - ngow,

74 75
 The adult individual song of X. Ch. (Niemi 1998: 128-129) have long epic songs - about the creation of the world, sung during the bear-
feast, songs about the forest spirits, songs for sacrifices, songs calling spirit
J) = 162 "dP-ebl-f+l protectors before and after fishing and hunting. Figuratively speaking, the Ostyak
do not think in terms of rhythm but in "types of motifs and lines", and their
melodic and rhythmic variants; their songs do not have a strophic structure but
are rearranged and changed in every performance; "the instability of certain
pitches is usual ... during singing ... the tonality, the basic pitch and the final
pitch also may change, intervals may grow wider or more narrow". T h e Ostyak
also have mythical songs, which are sung only in the evening ("such songs are
forbidden to be sung in the daytime, as in the world of the gods and spirits
everything is reversed.... Singing during that time would disturb their rest, and
the singer would be punished for that").
M a n y Siberian (and not only Siberian)peoples believe that in the world of
xub • ta-d(a) mung-go-tam' (ei) ya- ngei, the gods and spirits everything is reversed and opposite to the world of humans.
Such worldview conceptions are probably at the root of the rich meaning and
"openness" of the sound and the specific intonation in shamanic rituals.
Varying pitches, abundance of melodic and rhythmic variants, absence of
regular metre, use of different timbre "devices" (such as hoarse, husky,
"panty" and "snorting" sounds and glissandos), uneven length of the melody
lines, absence of "themes" and of an elaborate musical phraseology as well
as of local musical styles, are a c o m m o n musical-expressive feature of sha-
sya - n(a)' nge-da - ba -nyi- ya - ngei. man songs and, generally, of singing in Siberian shamanic communities. Also
This is your man singing very important is the fact that musical communication in Siberia took and still
at the Selyakin Cape. takes place in small communities (especially in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic re-
I take my gun with me, gions), where men have a central role in the so-called "music-making". A m o n g
A long-barrelled one, from dried "back" (?). the Nganasan, as well as among other peoples, "[i]t is c o m m o n that the most
My gun is already raised up, outstanding singer of the region is also a shaman, and Nganasan shamans are
I shoot, and all of a sudden it utters: usually m e n " (Ojamaa 2003: 5 , 9 ) .
- From me you have already shot not a single time, The above-mentioned features are characteristic not only of small Siberian
for your family you have hunted wild reindeer. hunter-communities but also of some state formations, such as Mongolia, which
This time, too, I give you one wild reindeer,
is still largely nomadic. Mongolian folksongs are typically characterized by
nothing more shall I kill!
pentatonic scales, quarter-tones/enharmonics, wide pitch intervals, and
My own land is the Yenisei plain,
and everybody knows that I am called Chyor. glissandos whose performance is primary and much more important than reach-
Kheyoma raised me up, ing a particular, tempered pitch. The Mongolians have two main types of songs,
with Yadne woman. which they call "long songs" (melismatic and richly ornamented, often accom-
I won't forget my own grandmother. panied by a string instrument) and "short songs" (syllabic, sung without orna-
I have my wife from the family of the Tokhe... nients). These two types differ only in their style of performance, and not in
their specific verse repertoire. This means that one and the same song may be
interpreted and performed both as a "short" and as a "long" song. In Mongolia,
T h e Ostyak also have such personal/individual songs describing the own- the so-called throat-singing (also based on a pentatonic scale) is practised not
er's village, family, events from their life, etc. (The information below is from °nly by shamans. Most men in Western Mongolia and Tuva, mainly nomadic
Lazar 1997: 244, 256-257, 279). They are sung by men and women without a herders, can throat-sing, "although not everyone is tuneful" (Levin, Edgerton
special occasion, most often when visiting someone. The Eastern Ostyak do not 2001). F r o m the Amur River to the Urals, the stylistic and sound-producing
have calendrical feasts or songs for childbirth, marriage a n d death. They equivalent of throat-singing among the Mongol peoples, including the Tuvan, is

76 77
the widespread aman huur, khomus (jaws/mouth harp) made of metal or bam- is vividly illustrated by the example of the professional musicians and storytell-
boo. The khomus has one basic tone, and lots of overtones which can be varied ers known as bagsy. According to Beliaev and other scholars, the word baxsi/
using the oral cavity, tongue, lips and throat. Whereas the khomus and metal bagsy originated in China and has different meanings among the different Turkic
mirrors are used by weaker shamans, powerful Tuvan shamans/shamanesses peoples. A m o n g the Turkmen, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, urban Uzbek and Tajik in Af-
use the dungur, the old shaman drum which is now used only by Buddhist monks ghan-Turkestan, it is the term for professional musicians and epic singers.
(KeHHH-JIoncaH 2000). "Among the Kazakhs, the Kirghis and the Uighurs the baksy (baksa/baxsi) also
F o r various historical and spiritual reasons, the shaman's d r u m is not denotes 'shaman', 'fortune teller', 'witch d o c t o r ' . . . Whether Turkmen baxsi
used in all Siberian societies. Some Ostyak shamans use the zither to call spir- were originally also shamans is a moot point" (Beliaev 1975: 171). The bagsy
its and enter into trance: T h e zither is also used in bear-feasts (Iso Karhu... were strongly influenced by Islam. 8 Turkic Muslims regard epic stories as God's
1980: 147). Nineteenth-century observers note that many Buryat shamans did Word and the words of storytellers as sacred. Some scholars think that their
not have drums (AranHTOB, HaHrajioB 1883: 42-44) and that the majority mythic narratives are based on the concept of the shaman's journey. (The infor-
used the j a w s ' harp (khur). There is similar information about the Itelmen mation below is from Zeranska-Kominek 1998.) The calling of the Turkmen
(Czaplicka 1914, citing Krasheninnikoff). Some Altaic shamans use the kabys, bagsy - a musician, poet and reciter - is often preceded by many years of
a traditional two-stringed instrument. After the Kalmyk migrated to the lower training, worship and sacrificial offerings at the grave of one of the two patron
reaches of the Volga River, their shamans shamanized without using any musical saints of poetry and music (Baba Gammar and Asyk-Aydyn). Spending the night
instrument (EazjMaeBa 2000: 66). Shaman's, drums have never been used in there after an initiatory vision, he embarks on a new road in life (that of an epic
Turkmenistan (Zeranska-Komiriek 1998). reciter or musician), which he follows with the help of the saint. The figure of
The picture and the style of musical performance changes progressively as the bagsy is connected with and formed by a number of sacred parameters:
we move from the north to the southern regions and Middle Asia. This is due not sacred places, the great journey or road (yol) leading to God; epic tales and
least to the complex social-political and demographic history of this part of the their recitation; performance of songs and a system of their organization, etc.
continent, which has developed at a different pace. Although it, too, has been Upon entering the yol the bagsy often takes opium; he has the freedom and right
inhabited for centuries by traditional nomads (such as the Kazakh, Turkmen, to select and organize the songs in his repertoire himself; their duration and
Tuvan and Mongols) and semi-nomads (like the southern Uzbek, who adopted a sequence is always improvised too. T h e sequence of the songs is based on two
sedentary way of life only in the last century), the musical picture in Middle basic rules: the melodies move from the lowest to the highest level in tonal
Asia is very different from that in Siberia and the Arctic Circle. For centu- space, from the narrowest to the widest tonal range, thus symbolizing the bagsy's
ries, the Silk Road has been populated by various string and wind (flute-like journey (yol). The songs are structured in so-called "register segments". There
and reed) instruments, professional performers of different narratives and vo- are songs with one, two-, or three segments, which, accordingly, have a narrow,
cal genres, various melodic forms and tone scales, distinctive musical-regional medium, or wide range. T h e songs consisting of only one .segment are per-
instrumental and vocal styles. The Chinese musical-stylistic (suite) and con- formed first, which practically means that every next song is more complicated
ceptual influence can be traced in Central Asia to this very day. An advanced than the one before it. One of the distinctive features of the bagsy's vocal per-
string-instrument tradition with traces of fifteenth-century court music exists in formance is the wealth of "sound effects" (similarly to those of the shaman).
the regions with a sedentary agricultural population (Bukhara-Samarkand, the The music is created during the performance itself, which lasts several hours.
Fergana Valley, the Khorezm region). The Arab-Persian metric models and This type of stylized and even professional expression of the idea of pas-
Sa
maqams among the Turkmen, Persian melodic motifs, Chinese musical canons, ge is universally rooted in an archaic prototype, inherited and explicated at
etc. are the result of later influences. The migration of musical ideas also led to different religious levels over the centuries. At the same time, the specific trans-
the formation of a new class of professional musicians in this part of the conti- Position of musical themes and system of performance (in terms of progres-
Sl
nent. O n e of the main formative factors was Buddhism and its spread along the ve build-up and widening of the range) distinguishes, conceptually and sty-
Silk Road, which led to a wide proliferation of Near Eastern and Central Asian listically, the figure of the bagsy from that of.the shaman. T h e roots and origins
string instruments. In this social and musical environment, traces of shamanhood
can be found in various syncretic forms, narrative texts, extant relics and con- 8
"Basilov ... considers that historically Sufism incorporated Central Asian shamanistic
cepts, etc. (Beliaev 1975; M a l m 1977). nte
s into the zikr ritual. ... In Tajikistan male and female baxsi healers use the drum to call
s
The possibility of gaining information about the origins and roots of a tra- Pirits and reform divination. The tradition reflects a syncretism of Central Asian shamanism
ditional phenomenon from the local musical style and its concomitant concepts ^nd Islam" - Doubleday 1999; for the influence of Islam on the beksy saryni and the use of
Prayer sentences" from the Koran, see EairreHOBa 1997: 183.

78 79
 F

of the Turkmen bagsy are also worth pondering not least because of the fact that fundamental concepts manifested in different ways and at different levels in
until the end of the twentieth century there were not "even conceptual studies on shamanic rites. For example:
the mythology of the T u r k m e n — Yet oral folklore and even the works of medi-
aeval poets (from the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries) offer plenty of evidence" In earlier times, each Khanty family used to have its own drum. When a shaman
was called in to resolve some crisis, he commonly made use of the family drum. As a
that the Turkmen had a mythological system. The history of the Turkmen tradi-
result of the repression campaigns of shamanism during the communist regime (Leete
tion as a "synthesis of cultural investments of the Turkic- and Iranian-speaking
1996) the number of drums preserved in households has fallen considerably. The
i ancestors'' (3ceH0B 1997: 212, 213) presupposes deeper and more complex guardian spirit of the family dwelt within the drum. If the drum broke up while it was
i i investigation also because of the nature of "musical thinking" in these parts of beaten, an ill fate was in store for the owner... (Barkalaja 2000; emphasis added)
Asia. Transposition of musical theme-motif (up or down by a third, fourth, sec-
ond, or fifth) is typical of the bagsy as well of the vocal and instrumental style According to Jochelson (1905-1908: 54-56), "The Koryak shamans have
of other peoples (for example, the Uzbek and K a r a k a l p a k - Y36eKCKas no drums (yyai) of their own; they use the drums belonging to the family in
HapoflHaa My3biKa. T . I, II; T. Ill, T . VIII, 1957; 1959). The case of the bagsy whose house the shamanistic performance takes place." Bogoras has similar
is a typical example of how inherited and probably "recreated" shamanhood observations on the Chukchi:
can be detected in some specific musical features and ritual contents in Middle
Each family has one or more drums of its own, on which its members are bound
Asian national traditions.
to perform at specific periods: that is, to accompany the beating of the drum with the
At the end of this chapter, I would like to return to> an already familiar singing of various melodies. Almost always on these occasions one member at least of
aspect of shamanhood - namely, the unity of shaman/community (family, clan, the family tries to communicate with "spirits" after the manner of shamans. Sometimes
village) which "resounds" in-the shaman's initiation and subsequent rites. The he even tries to foretell the future, but he receives no attention from his audience. This
figure of the shaman projects and "enacts" his or her community's system of is done in the outer room and in daylight, whereas the "shaman's", or professional
concepts and mytho-narratives, turning it into a tangible and accessible reality shaman's actions are performed in the inner room and at night. Besides this, every adult
for the audience at every shamanic ceremony. And even though the shaman is an Chukchee will occasionally take his drum, especially in the winter, and beat it for awhile
individualist, every shamanic ceremony or ritual is as much his or her work as in the warm shelter of the sleeping-room, with the light or without it, singing his melo-
that of the audience. The concept that the more the people w h o support the dies to the rhythm of the beats. (Bogoras 1907: 413)
shaman's journey and repeat his words, the better, is universal in Siberia and
Descriptions of the so-called wolf-festival, typical of the ritual practices
Middle Asia. The people present at a ceremony can help the shaman fall into
common to both Reindeer and Maritime Koryak, contain similar information
trance by repeating parts of his or her song, while drumming and shouting. The
about the shaman's drum:
Mongols, for example, believe that the yohor dance around a toroo tree or the
walking around the sacred oboo (cairns erected to mountain spirits) can raise a After having killed a wolf, the Maritime Koryak take off its skin, together with the
spiral of energy to carry the shaman to the Upper World. 9 T h e evidence that head, just as they proceed with the bear; then they place near the hearth a pointed stick,
shamans get support from and have a close relationship with their audience and tie an arrow, called ilhun or elgoi, to it, or drive an arrow into the ground at its butt
attests indisputably to a ritual unity of action of the elect one and his or her end. One of the men puts on the wolf-skin and walks around the hearth, while another
social group, of the individual and the whole. Evidence about such a relation- member of the family beats the drum. The wolf ... does not serve as food. ... He is
ship and joint journey during shamanic ceremonies has been offered by Kortt, dangerous, not in his visible... but in his invisible, anthropomorphic form. According to
who suggests that the shaman's whole kin group is reborn through his initiation the Koryak conception, the wolf is a rich reindeer-owner and the powerful master of
and that the shaman appears in the world of the spirits as an embodiment of his the tundra.... The Reindeer Koryak ... regard this animal as a powerful shaman and an
evil spirit. (Jochelson 1905-1908: 89-90; emphasis added)
entire social group (Kortt 1984: 293,299). The shaman himself symbolizes the
whole kin group just as the shaman's drum (along with the shaman's costume This type of evidence points to an older, not individual but kin-bound
and ritual accessories) symbolizes the shaman himself and his family. hypo-layer of shamanhood, to the generative cultural anthropological level,
The sequential unity of kin group=shaman, shaman=shaman's drum, sha- e
ven to the conceptions of the "ideal" time when the spirit was manifested in
man's drum=kin group is bound in a semantic circle by similar, probably original e
verybody and everything: "At the present day only the shamans can pass from
one world to another; but in the ancient days of Big-Raven ... this was possible
9 for ordinary people ... men could transform themselves either into the form of
The yohor circle dance is performed around a site hit by lightning in order to send i' ar
>imals, or into that of inanimate objects by donning an animal's skin or some
back up to heaven (Mongolian Shamanism -Introduction 101. 1997).

80 81
.<,!'
I '
covering of the shape of the object into which they desired to be transformed" shaman plays an important role only when he is its host" (JlHHTpon 2 0 0 1 : 1 1 9 ;
(Jochelson 1905-1908: 115-116,121). Actually, the thesis that the "great" and emphasis added). Neither Khanty nor Mansi shamans have specific ritual cos-
other types of shamans originated from "family shamanism" is suggested by tumes and images on their drums. In one of his latest publications, Lintrop writes
Bogoras (1907: 413), and later defended firmly Jochelson (1905-1908: 47): that the "Ob-Ugrian peoples are staying in the very periphery of Siberian sha-
" T h e r e is no doubt that professional shamanism has developed from the manism. ... A m o n g the Northern Mansi and Western Khanty the central institu-
ceremonials of family shamanism." Khomich (XOMHH 1981: 18) speculates tion for the transmission of religious tradition was a bear feast, not a shaman"
that "originally (before the formation of the contemporary Siberian peoples) (Lintrop 2001: 503-504; emphasis added). 10 This peripheral state seems evi-
l'i
there was a single category of shamans, and the different types of shamans did dent also in the Khanty bear-feast songs which, unlike those of other Siberian
not appear until later. ... This thesis is supported by the fact that the participa- peoples, differ significantly from shamanic songs: "The songs of this type are
tion of shamans in burial and subsequent cleansing rites was not obligatory and almost the only examples in Siberian native musical cultures, where we can
is not mentioned in eighteenth-century sources." witness the phenomenon of musical thinking. ... The stable melodic form yields
Nineteenth-century descriptions of clan and family rites indicate that among quite clea^ ba^ic motive types, which are organized into a regularly repeating two-
the majority of the Palaeo-Siberian peoples, they were not necessarily per- part motive group" (Niemi 2001b: 132,136; emphasis added). Even some Mongol
formed by shamans. The clan's sacrificial rituals, the "feeding" of ongons and ceremonies performed in honour of the mountain spirits around the times of the
other propitiation rites were conducted by the head of the family or clan. As equinoxes and solstices at special shrines called oboo (tall piles of rocks and
noted earlier, unlike the "classical" agricultural communities, including those tree branches roughly conical in shape) are usually conducted by the elders of the
in the Circumpontic community, the Northern and the majority of Middle Asian local clan or tribe. Zhambalova describes a "peculiar type of shamans" among the
shamanic peoples do not have a system of annual, calendrical rites performed Olkhon Buryat, who conducted ceremonies at sacred sites: they are "uninitiated, do
by a specific social and/or age group. Their main ceremonies were the sea- not have a buben ["tambourine", i.e. shaman's drum], costume and other accesso-
sonal family and communal sacrificial ceremonies performed in autumn and ries... but have the right to perform sacrifices and organize a feast. As a rule,
spring. Thus for example: they are elected among the authoritative, experienced elders... mediators be-
tween the gods and the believers, proficient... in invocation and hymns, knowers
Krasheninnikoff who travelled through the land of the Kamchadal in the middle of of the tradition and myths" ()KaM6ajioBa 1999: 81; emphasis added).
the eighteenth century, says that "among the Kamchadal there is only one great annual
ceremony, in November, and the chief riles at this ceremony belonged to old men". The
The parallel acting of elders or old men and shamans in the traditional
same author says: "Among the Kamchadal there are no special shamans, as among
rituals of some Siberian peoples m a y mislead scholars into assuming they are
other nations, but every old woman and koekchuch (probably women in men's clothes)
is a witch, and explains dreams." (Czaplicka 1914, citing Krasheninnikoff) more or less identical. In Zhambalova's above-quoted study the definition of
old men or elders as shamans or as shamans "but not quite", obstructs recogni-
T h e Altaic Kalmyk offer sacrifices to the clan's guardian spirit in spring. tion of an earlier in origin level and type of ritual behaviour which has been
The shaman has the same functions and performs the same actions as the old preserved and exists parallel with the rites of individual shamans. A behaviour
man, w h o pronounces a longprayer extolling the spirit and asking for the well- which functions in traditional rituals only in a community-wide context. Of
being of the herds by beating his drum (Atkinson 1858: 382-383). A m o n g the course, there are different opinions on this point. Kyzlasov (Kti3JiacoB 2001:
Yakut, the two ritual figures - of the shaman and of the "old m a n " - have differ- 83-90) claims that in the Khakas mountain (or highland), the communal prayers
ent but overlapping forms. The two annual seasonal village-wide ceremonies, to the Sky without the participation of shamans, the prayers and night vigils in
in spring and autumn, are dedicated to the white and to the black spirits. The caves are Manichaean in essence. Gumilev (TyMHJieB 1967) considers such
spring ceremony is conducted outdoors under the direction of the elder (the phenomena in Central Asia to be earlier relicts of Tengriism (see chapter "Sound
father of the clan/family), and the second, in autumn, is conducted at night under and Ritual Along the Route of the Bulgars"). The old man is a-"classical" ritual
the guidance of male and female shamans (Czaplicka 1914). figure found in many other traditions as well. In the Bulgarian ritual system, this
Khanty sacrificial rituals are conducted by the oldest man in the commu- figure exists to this very day - but the other one, that of the shaman, is com-
nity, who prays to and calls the spirits, and directs the offering of the sacrifices. pletely absent.
Similarly to shamans (or vice versa?), the old man recites long epic texts and
10
the "history" of the sacrificed animal/animals. During the kamlanie in the evening For the differences between the bear-feast and shamanhood, see KyjieM3Hii 2000;
he heats the drum over the fire, moving it clockwise, tests the sound and then 'or the "bear cult" as an antecedent of "shamanistic concepts" among the ancestors of
hands it over to the shaman (Barkalaja 2000). In the Ob-Ugrian bear-feast "the the Buryat, see Ba^MaeBa 2002: 5.

82 83
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T

BACK THROUGH TIME around for more than a century. The existence or non-existence of shamanhood
in ancient Thracian society and in the Circumpontic community seems to be a
purely academic problem involving researchers' subjective interpretation of
the available sources (folkloric, archaeological, written and pictorial) and
PERKE
knowledge about shamanhood itself. Bulgarian scholars admit the absence of
any evidence that "shamanism" existed "in early Hellas... in Thrace" as well
The country formerly called Perke was renamed Thrake, as the arbitrary nature of the term and concept of "Thracian religious reality"
after a nymph proficient in sorcery and herbs... (EornaHOB 1991: 90, 117; M a p a 3 0 B 1992: 309). Even so, some of them have
(Arrianus. Bithyn. Fr. 13. - T M : 306) "discovered" traces of "shamanism" in this area - operationally, by applying a
structural ("morphological" and "functional") approach identifying features that
n s p K i y P e r k e is the other n a m e of ancient Thrace and here it is a symbolic are typologically similar to shamanhood. The functional approach treats shamanhood
introduction to antiquity. Perke is also an early sacred designation of the Son of as a "specific technique typical of various epochs" (Mapa30B 1992: 309). Al-
the Great Mother Goddess, found in old written data. It is an ancient toponym though Bogdanov explicitly points out that he views "shamanism as an ideol-
(meaning "hill", "mountain"), which has been Bulgarianized in a number of ogy" (citing Eliade), he nevertheless compares and analyzes structures ("be-
derivatives over the centuries (such as Perin/Pirin; Persenk/Perpelik/Perperek, cause of the unclear historical situation, we are not speaking about a definite
etc. - OOJI. AJI. 2002: 162-163). In historiography and Thracology, "Thrace shamanism ... but about a shamanic structure ... a widespread practice of com-
and the Balkans" is a term denoting a specific political, ideological and territo- municating with otherworldly forces" - EornaHOB 1991: 79, 81, 90, 91).
rial entity that is part of the Circumpontic cultural-historical community. The The structural approach shows that one may always detect shamanic schemes
term reflects the similarity and unity in the development of cultures on both in different types of ethno-cultural heritage and that any researcher may piece
sides of the Sea of Marmara and around the entire Black Sea, including the together a shamanic structure on their desk as long as they have the relevant
Thracian civilizations from the Late Chalcolithic to the mid-first millennium literature (a successive attempt at this is made by Musi 2001). Such an under-
BC. This unity is manifested in "their [common] ideological characteristics, taking does not require intensive inquiry into and reflection on specific ethno-
economic structure, socio-economic and socio-political systems" (ITopo>KaHOB territorial characteristics and contents of a different order, a process indispen-
1998:43-44, with References). That is why the question of whether shamanhood sable, for every professional ethnological study: on the way of life and liveli-
existed among the ancient Thracians 1 and Greeks applies indirectly also to the hood of a particular community, on its stratification, state-administrative system
class societies in the Circumpontic community as a whole. This question is and military organization (if there is such), on its theological faith (if there is
especially pertinent to the time after the eighth century B C , which saw the rise such), ritual musical tradition (as an infallible mirror of faith), etc. 3 In other
of polis-based societies, the Hellenization of Thracian culture and a flowering words, any attempt to identify and compare "pure" - and, moreover, ritual -
of Thracian states in the mid-first millennium BC. 2 structures ignores a wide range of problems that have kept scholars busy for
T h e theories, Bulgarian as well as foreign, about the existence of "shaman- years. I am afraid that this approach is scientifically outdated and that it, figura-
ism" on the Balkans equally concern the ethnically pre-Greek Pelasgian/Thracian tively speaking, raises questions with no answers. I am also afraid that it is an
population, the territory named Hellas after the Trojan War, and the polis popu- intervention into the very essence of shamanhood-an intervention done, moreo-
lation of the Balkans after the eighth century BC. These theories have been ver, from an ill-informed standpoint that one-sidedly manipulates the public
sphere. The danger of creating a literary instead of a cultural-historical con-
ception of the essence of various territorial and spiritual spheres is one of the
1
The Thracians belong to the Indo-European cultural and language family, and to the motives for my study and my objections. And since I do not have the right to
geographical and ethno-cultural territory of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Thracians first reflect upon shamanhood "structurally", I will reverse the question: W h y is it
recorded their presence in the sixth century BC, but they were introduced into historiography
by earlier ancient Greek observers. From Homer's epics (Europe's oldest literary monu- impossible to say that shamanhood existed in ancient Thrace and Greece? If one
ment, officially dated to the eighth century BC) to the end of Antiquity, evidence about the
Thracians is found in the works of a number of authors (Oon An. 1997: 108-109, 141; p-
When studying the development of "human societies in the History of the Ancient
141 on the Thracian diaspora and boundaries; 2002: 206). World ... the influence of all factors (geographical, demographic, socio-economic, ideo-
2
The state system, ideology, culture and history of Thrace and the Thracians are funda- logical) is integral and interdependent. Taking only one of them into account, or assuming
mental subjects in Bulgarian Thracology, which is a leader in this field of research. Here I hat only one of them is important... leads to extremes in scientific thinking" - TIopo>KaHOB
will use its findings on the ethno-cultural and socio-political characteristics of the Thracians- 2003: 10.

84 85
has carefully read the distinctive features of shamanhood and of the communi- Empire". State-formation processes among the Thracians peaked in the first
ties that gave rise to it, then the subsequent exposition on the distinctive features millennium B C (in the sixth-fourth centuries), when an early class state was
of Thracian spiritual life can be read and thought of as its "negation" - as non- created in European Thrace (the Odrysian Kingdom - TIopoKaHOB 2000: 17,
shamanhood. with References). 5 One distinctive feature of Thracian statehood is metal min-
Classical shamanhood is not a ritual technique but a traditional ritual ing (mainly copper and gold) and trade in metals. Raw metals and metal arte-
shaped by the faith of a particular community. It is part of the synchronically facts are a certain indicator that this society produced surpluses and had trade
and diachronically spread faith on a particular territory. Let m e repeat: similar "most likely directed by the king" and accumulation of treasures connected with
or equivalent elements of a material, spatial and temporal nature, designated by its ideology (IIopwKaHOB 2003). Statehood requires and preconditions quali-
some as "technical devices", exist and function in different types of ritual sys- tative social changes, a different type of - namely, "religious" - thinking and
tems, in different ages and in different ethnic communities. That is also how relations between ideology and the institution of power. In this connection, the
houses are built... In my view, the existence of some typological similarities numerous temple complexes on the Balkans attest to the existence o f a socially
between the Balkan material and spiritual heritage, on one side, and shamanhood, differentiated ritual system among the Thracians (OOJI B. 2000: 120) which is
on the other, does not give us reason to claim that shamanic rites were practised not found in the Siberian shamanic communities. S h a m a n h o o d is dominant
in the ancient Thracian. and Greek ethno-cultural context. Faith and spiritual life among the clan-based, unstratified Siberian communities w h o s e belief in
on the Balkans and the faith and spiritual life of the Siberian and Middle Asian anima mundi is not associated with the idea of statehood, the ruler and the
shamanic peoples involve a different type of behaviour, and different cultural sacred organization of society as a whole. It is precisely in a political, eco-
and historical problems: T h e Balkan spiritual continuity is formed by a differ- nomic and social-ideological respect that communities with classical shamans
ent type of oral, written and religious "steps" occurring within a different his- and the communities of the ancient Greeks and Thracians have a different
torical timeframe. The universally accepted hypothesis of the "archaic nature stratification a n d class characteristics, a different political a n d ideological
of shamanism" is based only on archaeological evidence that is late compared history. Classical shamanhood is a traditional phenomenon among the so-called
to the finds discovered on the Balkans. And unlike ancient Greek and Thracian "mobile", nomadic societies with permanent (winter) and temporary settlements
society, Siberian societies do not have a clear political and ideological history and homes. On principle, this type of societies "do not have palaces and tem-
situated in linear time - from the age of the Ancient World to the Late Middle ples. Although they have an ideology, they do not have a separate and distinc-
Ages, when they became subjects of Russia. tive spiritual elite specially connected with the latter. They do not have a devel-
T h e most important differences between the Siberian classical "system of oped written culture and literature. ... Mobile societies do not have surpluses
beliefs" (as Hoppal 1999: 58 puts it) and the Thracian faith-rites can be found of people who can engage in the society's non-material sphere and create their
in the essence of their cosmogonic and spiritual concepts, and in the way the own creative class or social group" (riopoacaHOB 1998: 103-104; emphasis
latter are represented and enacted in rituals. Before proceeding to examine some added).
of them in detail, I will present one of m y main arguments against the existence Seasonal nomadic communities, which may be part of a clan-ruled and
of shamanhood in ancient Thrace and Greece, including among the ancient organized "empire", and sedentary communities which, too, may be clan/neigh-
Bulgars: classical shamanhood is not an ideology of .statehood and states.4 In bour-based and institutionalized as part of a state, have different types of ritual
Southeastern Europe statehood appeared in the second half of the fourth millen- systems. As a rule, class-stratified societies organized in a state have a calen-
nium B C , and according to the latest chronology, at the end of the fifth millen- dar system of rites, a well-developed ideology justifying "the ruler's social
nium B C . In the period of Classical Antiquity (around the sixth century BC), function" (IIopoKaHOB 1998: 182), his divine essence and origin, and not in-
"Thracian society was an early class society of the pre-classical slave-owning frequently, a hierarchy of worshipped gods (not spirits!). Such an ideology may
t y p e . . . . It would remain such u n t i l . . . the beginning of the second century AD, have a doctrine and even literature. Let us recall the Siberian b e a r - , whale- and
when the Thracians became subjects of Rome, and later citizens of the Roman Wolf-festivals (with or without the participation of shamans), which are uni-

4 5
Statehood evolves into states when "the economy produces surpluses and there is One of the terms denoting the state organizations of Thracian class society and of
intensive trade; society accumulates material and spiritual assets; private ownership and prop- Southeastern Europe in the second half of the second and at the beginning of the first millen-
erty acquire an active role; custom law is codified; social stratification is based not only on nium BC is chiefdom (tlopoacaHOB 1998: 186, 188). For more on chiefdoms as an early
social division but also on class stratification; ideology is expressed in written monuments mcomplete type of state", see also Mo'pflaHOB 2000: 51. All data about statehood and states,
and documents; spiritual accumulations are expressed in literature" (EIopo>KaHOB 1988: a
nd about the socio-economic characteristics of societies in the Circumpontic community
181-183, 188-189; 2000: 9-10, 13). ar
e from TIopo^aHOB 1993, 1998, 2000, 2003; Porozhanov 2003; HopaaHOB 2000.

86 87
•I.I

versal. They are held at the beginning and at the end of the hunting season, and innovated" in the oral, non-literate environment of Bulgaria and Byzantium,
when the families are in their permanent (winter) settlements - and it is no i.e. in the lands where the influence of literary centres was weak. 8
accident that these festivals involve rituals similar to the so-called "agricul- Thracian Orphism is a kingship ideology of early class Thracian society -
tural rituals". It is precisely this type of rituals, as well as their "improvised an aristocratic religious doctrine connected with the status of the king as high
performance" that indicate the existence of "musical thinking" in Western Sibe- priest and his divinity. In the more advanced state organizations in Southern
ria (this last in Niemi 2001a, 2001b). Thrace during and after the fifth century BC, it was practised by members of
king-priest families (OOJI AJI. 1991: 15, 225; 1997: 157, 122, 373; 2002: 44;
O n e of the fundamental differences between T h r a c i a n ideology and nopo>KaHOB 1998: 188; OOJI B. 2000: 109). This doctrine is initiatory in
shamanhood lies in the concepts of the supreme divine being. In early Thracian character, and it is designed to "initiate man into the mystery of the Cosmic
II Antiquity (Late Chalcolithic), as in the Eastern Mediterranean region at that birth"; it is based on the belief in the "immortality of intellectual energy, visual-
time, there was a "pure form of sun worship" (OOJI AJI. 1997: 122). A n c i e n t ized and conceptualized in the cosmogonic ... mystery of the sacred marriage of
T h r a c e , t o o , h a d a solar ideology in the Early B r o n z e A g e , r e p r e s e n t e d in the Great Mother Goddess and her Son - the Sun/Fire". This mystery is visual-
its m e g a l i t h i c culture: solar disks, r o c k sanctuaries, etc. " A s a rule, rock ized through the rituals in which the Son (in the form of a sacrificial animal,
s a n c t u a r i e s in T h r a c e are l o c a t e d o n high g r o u n d o r o n cliffs t o w e r i n g usually a bull) "unites his blood with the powerful w o m b of the Earth" (OOJI
over t h e l a n d s c a p e " ; this t r a d i t i o n lasted for t h o u s a n d s of years (OOJI B. AJI. 1986; 2002: 44, 242; OOJI B. 2000: 134). T h e O r p h i c k i n g himself is a n
2000: 85, 132). F o l l o w i n g t h e c r e a t i o n of t h e earliest T h r a c i a n state for- i n c a r n a t i o n of the Son, of t h e d y i n g a n d r e s u r r e c t i n g O r p h i c G o d . After
m a t i o n s , t h e "rock-faith d e s c e n d e d " t o the plains, w h e r e it inspired the his d e a t h , h e t u r n s into an- anthropodaimon, into a divine, doctrinally initi-
c o n s t r u c t i o n of t u m u l i , temples, architectural complexes of the palace-sanc- ated "mediator between man and G o d . . . The belief in immortality makes the
t u a r y - s e p u l c h r e - f t e r o o n t y p e (OOJI AJI. 1997: 3 5 3 ; 1991: 2 5 5 - 2 5 6 ; OOJI B. anthropodaimon equal to God, and the Orphic king equal to the S o n . . . . Because
2000: 43-44). T h e r e is a m p l e evidence of this in m a n y s o u r c e s a n d ar- of the daimons (sing. Saipcoi)), divination b e c o m e s possible a n d t h e priests
c h a e o l o g i c a l finds from different periods. 6 are successful" (OOJI AJI. 2000: 2 6 8 , 1 9 , 63). T h e s u p r e m e O r p h i c deity, the
(The information below is from OOJI B. 2007: 341-342, 265.) S u n worship Son of the Great Mother Goddess, is known from ancient sources by the Thraco-
is a n early, pre-Hellenic form of ethnic/oral Thracian Orphism, a faith born Phrygian name Sabazios/Za(3d^iov. Even though the Orphic faith-doctrine was
in a megalithic context as a synthesis of East Mediterranean and above all Egyptian professed by an esoteric male society, it "was not alienated from popular be-
ideas/images. 7 Here "Thracian" is not an ethnic but an anthropological attribu- lief, for otherwise society would have disintegrated" (OOJI AJI. 2002: 229).
tion. Orphism was a faith of non-literate communities in ancient Southeastern The Orphic aristocracy, especially the Odrysian one, kept the tradition of mega-
Europe, found in its most distinct form in European and Asian Minor Thrace. It lithic rock sanctuaries, while complementing and updating it doctrinally: in
is precisely in European and Asian Minor Thrace that w e find various types of Thracian submound temples, "the penetration of the ' w o m b ' (the centre of the
sources which best reveal the essence of oral Orphism. The latter is also found floor of the structure under the mound) by the sunray is visualized by means of a
in Hellenic communities in the northern part of Hellas, in Thessaly, Boeotia, column". These sanctuaries form a complex together with the surrounding ne-
Phocis, including Delphi and the Parnassus Mountains. During the Middle Ages, cropolis.
"the pagan faith/rites, superficially Christianized, were preserved, maintained After the eighth century BC, in the period of mass Hellepization of the
northern regions, Thraco-Pelasgian beliefs were revised by the so-called re-
form of Delphi. The latter personified the solar and chthonic energy in ancient
6
For the sacred forest and sanctuary of Dionysus with a permanent oracle, priests Greek as Apollo and Dionysos. These two cosmogonic ideas correspond to
and specific rites, see Suetoni. Aug. 94, 6 (TM: 285); for Achilles' island, temple, ancient different ritual acts (OOJI AJI. 1986:147; 1997:122). According to Macrobius,
statue and oracle, see Arr. Peripl. 21,22. (TM: 306-307); for the temple of the mountain
Sabazios was celebrated in a round temple on a sacred peak; the temple roof
Demeter in Phrygia, see Xantos. Lidika, Fr. 7., Scol. Apoll". Rhod. 2, 724. (HHT: 191); for w
the Satrians and the Oracle of Dionysus located "on their most lofty mountains", where there a s open; at the centre below the round hole there was an altar-hearth; the rays
was "a prophetess who utters the oracles, as at Delphi", see Herodotus. X, 7, 111, 1 (HHT: °f the sun (and its zenith) fell exactly on the altar; Sabazios was then called
250); etc.
7
All data about Thracian Orphism are from OOJI AJI. 1986; 1991; 1994; 1995; 1997; 8
For details on the orally transmitted beliefs, the cultural-historical continuity of the
2000; 2000b; 2002. Terms such as "faith-rites", "memory-knowledge", "types of behaviour" et
jinic faith (in ancient political formations) which cannot be studied on a territorial basis
and "religiosity" among the Thracians are introduced and justified by Alexander Fol in the ^•thin the present-day political boundaries of states, see OOJI AJI. 2004: 49, 64; OOJI B.
works cited above. 2007: 342.

88 89
 "Apollo and the priests divined his will" from the sunlight. W h e n the Sun was different societies are not necessarily an indicator of similar ways of think-
"in the lower hemisphere of the earth" (says Macrobius), the priests divined ing or similar ideological spheres. For example, sprinkling blood, hanging the
from the play of the fire in the altar-hearth. "In this nocturnal ritual the god head and skin of the sacrificed animal in a high place, and eating raw meat are
•II I Sabazios was called D i o n y s o s . . . . This is the dual Thracian g o d - the god of the found in sacrificial rituals in different parts of the world and in different histori-
'I ' two ways to knowledge" (OOJI AJI. 1997: 349-351). T h e essence of D i o n y s o s cal periods. Another universal feature of this type of rituals is the fact that all
consists in t h e c o n c e p t t h a t " k n o w l e d g e ... being divine, cannot b e attained offerings are<performed upon a c o m m a n d from above (from spirits, saints; re-
without 'mania', without becoming possessed". This applies "both to the god ceived in a dream, vision, etc). The mythical prototype of the returning God or
III 1 ,
himself ... and to his ' B a c c h i ' . . . whose bodies he enters during his 'orgia'l totem animal is also found in different types of rituals. Similar ritual practices
mysteries" (OOJI AJI. 1997: 347, 349; 1986: 147, 168). Euripides writes that may perform different "tasks" at different levels in the ritual systems of peoples
I',' "this divinity is a prophet, since what is bacchic, and therefore manic, has much with a different history and different - animistic, mythological, gnostic -
M mantic in it" (Schol. in Eur. Hek. 1267. - H T T 1:113). T h e Bacchic Dionysian worldviews and "dimensions". T h e system within which they are practised
I 11 mysteries were held at night, and they were exoteric. "Whereas the Orphic determines the types of behaviour, the ritual mediators and concepts of the "jour-
I esoteric (aristocratic) mysteries were conceived of as sxaxaaic, of initiates to ney" through divine space as conceptually different. Being a specific relict of
the Son Sun/Fire (Apollo/Dionysos), the Orphic exoteric (Orphic-Bacchic) mys- Thracian antiquity, the nestinarstvo, too, illustrates the fundamental difference
teries were conceived of as svOovaiaapog of t h e S o n i n t o believers" (OOJI between some prima facie similar ritual practices in different ethno-cultural
A n . 2002: 242). According to Ancient Greek descriptions of the Samothracian zones and ritual situations.
mysteries,9 the mystes " s a w " the mystery, the sacred' marriage of the Great The Ob-Ugrians (Western Siberia) believe that if the legs of the reindeer
Mother Goddess and her Son, and the "birth of the son'Vking. " T h e mysteries jerk during the sacrifice and the prayer this is a good sign denoting that the
were conducted in mountains and caves ... by priests ... the sacrificial animal animal is already running towards the herd of the god. If the reindeer drops to
\ I was usually a bull ... a zoomorphic image of the masculine principle" (OOJI its right side (to the west) this, too, is considered an auspicious sign; if it falls
AJI. 1991: 225; e m p h a s i s a d d e d ) . I n the E a s t M e d i t e r r a n e a n r e g i o n (in- to the left (to the east), an inauspicious omen (Barkalaja 1997). "Reindeer are
c l u d i n g Egypt), in the Thracian and ancient Greek cultural-linguistic commu- placed with their heads to the sun [to the south]. Not to the night." Everyone
nities-, the God-Bull is one of the strongest identifications of God. Eating raw, must partake of the meat, eating it raw first, and only then start cooking it.
bloody meat was believed to induce possession, i.e. His entry into believers. Reindeer sacrificed to the gods of the Upper World are not considered to be
The enthusiasmic states and "madness" were painful for the prophets of dead, unlike those sacrificed to the gods of the Underworld (Leete 1997; em-
Dionysos, and often led to excesses - as noted also in the poems of Orpheus phasis added). In the votive rites of the Bulgarians, too, all animals are placed
himself, a "poet and seer" (according to Philochorus, Schol. in Eur. Alk. 968. - with their heads "to the sun" before and during their sacrifice. At the panagyr
H T T 1:106). Twenty-five centuries after Euripides, this has been observed and (festival) of SS Kostadin (Constantine) and Helena in the village of Bulgari
described in the nestinari's state of possession and prophetic gift as "pain" and (Mount Strandja, Southeastern Bulgaria), the heads of the animals are also placed
as a "burden" (OOJI. B., HeiiKOBa P. 2000: 155-167, see A p p e n d i x t o this in this direction after they are sacrificed - they are placed to the side and above
c h a p t e r ) . Possession as pain, the induction/entry of God, spirits, saints into the ground, on a board or other "elevation", facing the sun (in this particular
humans is a ritual universal in different traditions. It takes similar psychoso- case, t o the east); the lower part of the legs are left touching the ground. T h e
matic forms but has different ethno-cultural contents and motivations. 1 0 Failure concept of the "blurred", surmountable boundary between "this" and the "other"
to take into account the specific ethno-cultural context can lead to simplistic world is identified with the peculiar physical behaviour and state of the sacrifi-
comparisons as found, for example, in the opinion that the nestinarstvo is "a cial animal: "the m e a t of the sacrificed animal is not w a s h e d " but cleaned by
form of Greek shamanism ... because it is well known that many Finno-Ugric hand only; if the body of the sacrificed animal twitches after "the removal of
shamans ... groan, roam and howled" (Laitila 1987: 112). T h e nestinarstvo, the head", t h i s i s considered ap auspicious sign, the explanation being that the
however, is not a "Bulgarian form of shamanhood" (as KaJiojiHOB 1995: 76 slaughterer was "light-handed" and the animal was sacrificed painlessly. A
claims) but a relict of the Sabazian mysteries. Typological similarities between sacrificed bull must fall to its right side (i.e. to the south). Instead of a prayer
"offering" the sacrifice, pronounced by the elder of the sacrificial ceremonies
9
Samothrace was the epicentre of Thracian Orphism. The island's indigenous popula- among the Khanty, the Mount Strandja ritual is accompanied by an instrumental
tion was Thraco-Pelasgian (OOJI AJI. 1986: 95). melody with two functions - "of struggle/sacrifice" - played on the gaida (Bul-
10 garian bagpipes) and the tupan. Before it is cooked, the meat is tried raw, an
For the differences between possession and obsession in ritual behaviour and in the
"global, official" religions, see Rouget 1985: 23, 126.

90 91

IEH,
 act symbolizing "the induction of God into" (for details, see OOJI B., HeincoBa theological system. Sacrifice in Siberian rituals does not personify the su-
P. 2000: 133, 220-224). S o m e of t h e m e a t a n d / o r liver of t h e sacrificed preme God and is not a substitute for the kingship institution, nor does it
a n i m a l is e a t e n r a w before it is c o o k e d in m a n y p a r t s of A s i a as well. return the doctrinally immortalized king who himself is also the priest conduct-
W h e r e a s t h e sacrificed 5 a n i m a l in t h e M o u n t S t r a n d j a r i t u a l d o e s n o t " r u n ing the ritual.
t o w a r d s t h e h e r d of the god", there is a relict of a typologically similar con-
cept in the ritual: the so-called manastirsko stado or "monastic herd", in which The weakest point of structuralists who equate Thracian ideology with
the animals dedicated to the saint are set free "to breed". Similarly, on the day shamanhood lies perhaps in the concepts of the entity or wholeness and multi-
M1 plicity of the spiritual substancein humans (and animals). In Thracian mysterial
< ii of the sacrifice the Chuvash and many Caucasian peoples dedicate the animals
to be sacrificed the following year (a stallion, a ram, a young bull) and set them as well as doctrinal faith-rites, the c o n c e p t o f "multiple souls" and their rebirth
free to graze at will throughout the year, allowing them to go wherever they is absent. According to the Siberian and Middle Asian concepts, neither ordi-
want to ( E r o p o B 1995: 212). I n Siberia, spirits m a y b e p r o m i s e d a reindeer nary people nor shamans can return as an "entity" or a "whole" after their physical
if they fulfil a p r a y e r . T h e r e a r e sources w h i c h i n d i c a t e t h a t this tradi- death. The concept that great shamans "are able to awake the dead" (Pentikainen
tion, as well as t h e idea of t h e sacrificial a n i m a l " c o m i n g willingly", is 1998: 32-33) is a metaphor of rank and power, and it is based on the different
very old o n the B a l k a n s as well: ethnic variants of the belief in the "transmigration" and rebirth of souls after
physical death. Shamans can return one of the souls through which they will, for
[0]n the island of Achilles [today Serpents' Island]... is his [Achilles'] temple and example, increase their power from spirit helpers and ongons. Unlike the
his statue, an archaic work. This island is not inhabited and goats graze on it, not many, Thracian aristocratic community, where the believer prepares for passage into
which the people who happen to arrive here with their ships, sacrifice to Achilles. In this Orphic immortality, the idea of immortalization of intellectual/spiritual energy
temple are also deposited a great many holy gifts ... offered to Achilles in gratitude ... as an entity is absent among the classical shamanic peoples.
[S]ome of the men who reach this island, come here intentionally. They bring animals The religiosity and beliefs of the Thracians about the otherworld are con-
in their ships, destined to be sacrificed. Some of these animals they slaughter, others
tained in Herodotus' well-known account of the Getae, " w h o believe in their
they set free in Achilles' honour. But there are others ... who have no sacrificial ani-
immortality" ( H T T I: 211, JMe 93; 221', jNb 4, 1) a n d in H e l l a n i c u s ' Barbarian
i ,i mals, but wish to get them from the god of the island himself... They ask permission
[from Achilles' oracle] to slaughter the victims chosen from among the animals that Customs: "[B]oth the Terizoi and the Krobyzoi immortalize, saying that the
11 dead go to Zalmoxis and will return ... they offer sacrifices and arrange feasts..."
graze freely on the island ... [in exchange for a price, and negotiate with him] until at
H last, the oracle agrees that the price is sufficient. And then the victim doesn't run away (Hellan. Fr. 73. H T T I: 188). According to Plato, Zamolxis/Zalmoxis and the
any more, but waits willingly to be caught. (ApnaH, Peripl. 21, 22. - T M : 306-307; Thracian physicians of Zalmoxis believed in the immortality of the soul:
emphasis added) There is similar evidence in Philostratorum - about the sacrificial al-
tar of Rhes/Rhesos in the Rhpdope Mountains (TM: 383, III 16-17), etc. Zamolxis ... our king, who is also a god, says further, "that as you ought not to
attempt to cure the eyes without the head, or the head without the body, so neither
In the oral Thracian tradition, as in the Hellenic non-literate ethnic commu- ought you to attempt to cure the body without the soul; and this ... is the reason why
nities, blood-sacrifice symbolizes the sacred marriage. Through the blood that the cure of many diseases is unknown to the physicians of Hellas, because they are ig-
penetrates the Earth, "the Son will become one with the Great Mother Goddess norant of the whole..." For all good and evil, whether in the body or in human nature,
and will be reborn" (OOJI B. 2000: 133). In Thracian doctrinal rites, the sacri- originates ... in the soul... And therefore if the head and body are to be well, you must
begin by curing the soul; that is the first thing. And the cure ... has to be effected by the
ficial animal is thought of as a semantic double of the Orphic king. The sac-
use of certain charms... (Plato. Charm. 155-157. - TM: 106-107; emphasis added)
rifices in b e a r - , whale-, and wolf-"ceremonies" return the totem animal/ances-
tor, which descended from the Sky, to its creator. The Siberian peoples believe On the basis of such accounts, some scholars interpret Zalmoxis and Orpheus
that the bear is a direct descendant of the Heavenly Being, which was "out- as archetypal [?] figures of a shaman in ancient Thrace". Unfortunately, such
lawed" and deprived of the latter's support upon its descent to Earth, and that Propositions are based on purely typological comparisons ("Healing is a main
the killing of the bear "restores its divine status" (JlHHTpon 2001: 119). This social function of shamans. And this is crucial in defining Zalmoxis as a proto-
mythical plot - of the union of the heavenly messenger with the life-giving type [?] of Getic s h a m a n s " - M a p a s o B 1992: 318, 326-327; " O r p h e u s is
earthly being, visualized as' a sacrifice and followed by the restoration of the r e g a r d e d as a s o r c e r e r - h e a l e r b e c a u s e s h a m a n s h e a l w i t h s i m i l a r [?]
messenger's status - is also found in different parts of the world and in different c h a r m s " - EoiTjaHOB 1991: 83). T h e only typological similarity b e t w e e n
periods, including in theological communities. A m o n g the Palaeo-Siberian the q u o t e d d a t a a n d s h a m a n h o o d is t h e c o n c e p t of the soul as the prime
peoples, however, the bear-feast and the mythical plot itself are not based on a cause of "illness". This similarity is only typological because there are a number

92 93
 of serious differences both in the ways of "healing" and in the concepts of the afterlife as an extension of life on earth is very persistent. This makes it all the
,1 • soul - as an entity or wholeness and as multiple souls in man. In Orphic healing, more difficult to distinguish between the Thracian and the Old Bulgar substrata
as described in the ancient Greek sources, there is no evidence of a soul jour- in the inherited tradition on the Balkans. The two ideological spheres - the
ney or even of a metaphorical flight to the otherworld. There is no evidence that Thracian and the ancient Bulgar one - obviously overlap in their concepts of the
the Thracian healers, similarly to shamans, chased and followed spirits, that afterlife as a state of immortality (where the "departed" serve God).
I'l they looked for a soul captured by an evil spirit in the field of the universe, that
they used knives, arrows, heated iron... The difference between shamanic heal- In the period of Hellenization, Thracian religious thought and concepts were
ing and the restoration of order in the human body and sou! through chanted, revised by Pythagoras and ancient Greek writers. Actually, oral Thracian
melodized speech is, so to speak, a conceptual one. And those who have read Orphism was transformed into an exoteric ritual system, including a Hellenic
ethnomusicological studies on the meaning of the different vocal sounds will one (OOJI AJI. 2002: 251). 13 In literary ancient Greek Orphism, the belief in
know that monotonous chanting is not a cure but a cosmogonic approach, one of immortality "passed into the Hellenic b e l i e f in the salvation of the soul atoning
the ways of ritual arrangement/ordering of space and of entering its different for its sins before the god of the underworld kingdom; in the myths, Dionysos-
fields." In Plato, this idea is introduced in the views about the ethos of harmo- Zagreus himself is a son of P e r s e p h o n e a n d H a d e s (OOJI AJI. 1986: 174).
nies a n d c o s m i c p u l s a t i o n s , a b o u t r h y t h m in s p e e c h / p o e t r y in t h e "ideal Because of their "stay" with Hades, Orpheus and Zalmoxis are defined as "ar-
R e p u b l i c " . T h e O r p h i c s believed t h a t " i g n o r a n c e w a s t h e illness of the chetypal [?] figures of a shaman in ancient Thrace ... they perform a katabasis
s o u l " (OOJI AJI. 2002: 186) and that overcoming ignorance was a way to im- and an ascent" ( M a p a s o B 1992: 318-319; 337-338). Ritual death, katabasis
J mortality, a way to "Memory-Knowledge"; according to Plato, too, "charms" and "ascent" are a universal component of all initiatory and mysterial rites of
I
:• ("incantations" - T M : 107) consisted in the articulation of rational principles passage. Although one may draw purely theoretical conclusions about the
(TLiaTOH 1979: 251, JN° 156, 157). T h e recitation of creation legends and katabasis by reading the ample literature on the subject without doing any field-
eschatological myths in different traditions probably had a similar "ordering" work, taking the katabasis out of the ritual context and ideological sphere in
and apotropaic function too. Zalmoxis, who probably lived before the end of which it "occurs" is a manipulation. Shamans as well as all divine or semi-
the sixth century BC, is one of the most reliable reference j)oints in establishing divine figures can travel through the different worlds, and often have androgy-
the chronology of Thracian and Hellenic Orphism (AJI. OOJI 1986: 89; 2002: nous features and specific attributes; this is one of the textbook truths about
65). T h e principles o f organizing the whole or entity (of space and of the body) initiations, as every beginner ethnologist knows. 1 4
through pouatKOc (through sound - speech - gesture/movement) were a tradi- The katabasis of Orpheus has inspired many to presume that "shaman-
tion in the lands north of Greece, where "the disciples of Zalmoxis ... are said ism" existed in Thracian and ancient Greek culture. The original sources on the
t o b e so skilful t h a t they c a n even give i m m o r t a l i t y " (njiaTOH 1979: 251, former have given rise to many interpretations and creative impulses. The story
N° 156e; e m p h a s i s added). 1 2 1 of the ill-fated Orpheus (after the death of Eurydice) drew tears of compassion
T h e idea that humans have multiple souls or that the dead will be reborn is in the nineteenth-century provincial Bulgarian cultural community. Similar sen-
absent in the Bulgarian folk tradition too, including among the successors of the timental stories were also much beloved of organ grinders in different parts of
old Bulgar states (in the Northern Caucasus, in the Volga Region; see chapter Bulgaria. In this connection, we cannot ignore the works of one of the elite
"Sound and Ritual Along the Route of the Bulgars"). Generally, the idea of the twentieth-century researchers, Ake Hultkranz, who has written hundreds of pages
on the subject of Orpheus and Eurydice and the so-called "Orpheus tradition"
(a general term for narratives - tales, legends, myths - containing and united by
1
' For more on the meaning of diaphonic songs where the higher tonal level symbolizes
entry into "higher levels of the ritual space", see KayibMaH R. 1998: 66, 68.
12 13
See Diog. Ath. Semele. Fr. 1. = Athen. 14, 636 A. (HTT 1:148) for "a wise healer For more on Hellenization as the organization of sedentary society in poleis, on the
singing hymns to the gods"; Plato (1981: 61, JSTQ 364, 365) for "begging priests and soothsay- adoption of the Greek language by the Pelasgian-Thracians and other Palaeo-Balkan peoples
ers" (at the temples to the gods) who "go to rich men's doors and make them believe that they trom the thirteenth century BC onwards, see Ilopo>KaHOB 1998: 97-99; for more on the
by means of sacrifices and incantations have accumulated a treasure of power from the gods development of a literary "Orphic mythology" and the-role of "pre-Greek Cretan and insular
that can expiate and cure with pleasurable festivals any misdeed of a man or his ancestors . • • Mediterranean faith in approximately similar god-identifications", see OOJI AJI. 1994' 267-
They produce a bushel of books written by Musaeus and Orpheus ... and these books they 268; 1997: 348-349.
14
use in their ritual ... They call these sacrifices initiations that will deliver us from evils in the For more on the impossibility of equating Orphism with "shamanism" and "the jour-
other world [emphasis added]". According to Alexander Fol (AJI. OOJI 1986: 174), this text ney to and back from Hades" with the katabasis of shamans, see OOJI AJI. 2000: 62, 245-
indicates that "late Orphism" was a belief in salvation. 247.
1
94 95

- 1
c o m m o n motifs). Hultkranz was too scientific and intellectual for his times to ascent" - is simply a student exercise. Neither the travel through different worlds
become as popular among the general public as Eliade, although the three emi- nor the "ascent" and "descent" of Orpheus, Zalmoxis or other Orphic figures
n e n t s c h o l a r s - Eliade, Dodds and Hultkranz - worked at roughly the same are evidence of "shamanism", irrespective of whether or how many Eurydices
time of the twentieth century. Hultkranz is one of the authors w h o support the were expecting them in the netherworld... The various mythographic versions
thesis "that shamanization has provided the pattern for the Orpheus tales ... that of the. death of Orpheus from the fifth century B C onwards are interpreted in a
in its North American form with the receptacle-motif the Orpheus tradition de- similar way, where his "killing" by lightning and tearing to pieces by the
rives from the shaman ritual" (1957:240-241 1 5 ). He attempts to trace and prove Bacchantes is compared to the ritual "killing of the shaman" by the spirits
this by conducting a literary investigation of narratives based on a vast corpus (Mapa30B 1992: 312). Let me add here that one of the typical Orphic practices
of folkloric material. "Orpheus' experiences and actions on the journey to the known from a number of archaeological finds is dismemberment of the dead, a
land of the dead and on the return trip have their precise counterparts in the circumstance which brings them close to the mythical prototype of Zagreus/
experiences of the shaman in his search for a lost soul" (Hultkranz 1957: 248). Dionysos w h o is torn to pieces by the titans.
Commenting on the similarities in the different variants of the relevant tales (in Regardless of whether they are "travelling" upwards or downwards, sha-
the North American tradition, in Asia and in Siberia), Hultkranz supposes that mans in Siberian communities always know a priori that they can reach only
"the American and the Asiatic-Oceanic Orpheus tales - which latter are of certain levels of the universe. N o t only d o they never reach the highest
course parts of one and the same tradition - are outgrowths of one and the same level of the sky and the supreme deity, but they also never intend to. This "a
historical narrative" that reached North America by way of the Pacific Ocean priori knowledge", together with the concepts of the multiple souls, predeter-
and Bering's Strait; "It is my opinion ... that in such widely separated quarters mines the specificity of their katabasis - both in rituals and upon initiation.
as North America and Europe the Orpheus tradition has had a c o m m o n struc- While "healing", the shaman "indeed" takes and pursues one of the patient's
tural origin, viz, the shamanistic act in connection with the curing of soul loss" souls to a certain "point" in the L o w e r World through a ritual and the so-called
(Hultkranz 1957: 2 3 - 3 5 , 1 8 3 - 2 0 5 , 1 9 8 , 204, 260; emphasis added). soul journey; only some Mongol and Turkic shamans are able to negotiate with
Hultkranz is either not familiar with or ignores Thracian religiosity and its Erleg Khan himself 17 (son of the Sacred Sky). "In reality, shamans did not have
rites. Foreign as well as Bulgarian authors defending the thesis about the shamanic direct contact with god" (KyjieM3HH 2000: 5). In this connection, the proposi-
structure of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice ignore the fact that it is the tions that "Orpheus was probably a supreme shaman who was able to turn into a
product of ancient Greek mythographic revisions laden later with strong folk- deity" (EoniaHOB 1991: 84) and that there is a resemblance between Hermes
loric connotations. Incidentally, the first attempt to identify Eurydice as an ar- (who, together with Orpheus, were supposedly "deities with shamanic features"
chaic mythical prototype of an "underworld goddess" and to connect her ideo- - EoraaHOB 1991: 83) 18 and the shaman are simply alogical. T h e s h a m a n is
logically with the katabasis and figure of Orpheus was m a d e more than one not a substitute for a deity and is never identified with God or with the Son
hundred years ago by Maas. 1 6 W h a t Hultkranz fails to see in the material he of God, be he underworldly or heavenly (for examples of this from the Tungus
cites is that the Orpheus/Eurydice narrative relationships may be manifested and the Buryat, see Massenzio 1984). The supreme Orphic deity Sabazios/
and expounded on any territory, irrespective of whether initiations with katabasis, Dionysos (as well as the Thracian way of communicating with God) is concep-
shamanhood or some high doctrine are found on the territory in question. The tually different from the iinpersonified abstract essence of the Sacred Sky; this
fact that they spread transcontinentally precisely as a type of narrative does not applies also to the Hellenic Supreme God, the Thunderer, and the entire cohort
even rule out the possibility that the story may have been introduced much later of courtier gods who were involved in the intrigues of the polis and its politics
precisely on the territories where Hultkranz believes it originated. For those for centuries. In the Thracian doctrinal ritual system, only Orphic kings were
very reasons, the comparison and equation of figures containing purely typo- entitled to direct contact and identification with God. In the rock-megalithic
logical parallels - "travelling to and back", "performing a katabasis and an environment and submound temples, the king - the doctrinal Son of the Son
Sabazios - is also "the priest at rites" (OOJI B. 2000: 30, 93, 95). We find this
also in Polyaenus' account about King Cosingas who, according to the Orphic
15
Hultkranz explores the subject in detail in his 1953 and 1957 monographs. He
expressed his views on the shamanic origin of the "Orpheus tradition" in a lecture in Stock-
17
holm as early as 1949 or, as he himself claims, two years before Eliade's monograph on The same concepts that shamans can travel only to a particular place "on the way" to
shamanism. the world of the dead are found among North America Indians (Hultkranz 1957: 246).
16 18
Maas E. 1895. Orpheus, Untersuchungen zur griechischen-romischen altchristli- For more on the ithyphallic Hermes as an Orphic deity (the fourth Kabeiros) and his
chen Jenseitsdichtung und Religion. Munchen (from Hultkranz 1957: 188). connection with the Orphic mysteries, see OOJI AJI. 1986: 72, 129, 152.

96 97
 w

faith, is identified with the Son of the Great Mother Goddess and has the right to the shaman's vocation and .the concepts of god- or spirit-lovers existing in
"ascend" to Her. Some authors equate this with "the universally valid for sha- different traditions has been noted even b y nineteenth-century researchers. Here
manism ascent with the help of a ladder or rope" ( M a p a 3 0 B 1992: 319, citing I want to remind the reader that the shaman's nuptial spirit partner is an ideal
Eliade): substance invisible to others, and not a real figure from a doctrinal commu-
nity; that the "shaman - assistant" and "shaman - spirit helper" ritual configura-
The generals of the Cebrenii and Sycaeboae, two Thracian tribes, were chosen
tion and relationships are fundamentally different from the Orphic " d y a d " w e
from among the priests of Hera. Cosingas ... was elected to be their priest and gen-
eral. ... Cosingas built a number of long ladders, and fastened them one to another. He know from ancient Greek mythographic and pictorial sources (Orphic singers,
11
... had decided to climb up to heaven, in order to inform Hera of the disobedience of those born of Muses, who love men - Thamyris, Orpheus and Calais, Strymon
the Thracians. The Thracians ... were terrified by the idea of their general's intended and Rhes/Rhesos, Achilles and Patroclus - are invariably of divine/semi-di-
journey ... They implored him not to carry out his plan, and they promised with an oath vine origin and genealogy 2 0 ). This is a manifestation of doctrinal status, of the
to obey all of his future commands... (Polayeni. Strag., VII22. - T M : 347; emphasis initiated Orphic. Judging from the different chronology of the ancient accounts,
added; for more on Hera as a Hellenic hypostasis of the Great Mother Goddess, see ritual dual^J. (of men and women always of the same sex, without evidence about a
OOJI AJI. 1991: 2 6 , 2 3 8 ; 1994: 8 8 ) ritual sex change) seems to have been very typical of Orphic esoteric and. exo-
teric societies. 21 In one scene depicting Dionysos with two Bacchantes on an
Various ancient sources mention the existence of a society of priests on the
Attic black-figure vase from the fourth century B C (Fig. 11), the figures of the
territory of the Thracians and the Balkans who served at temples and sanctuar-
two Bacchantes are represented and obviously meant to be perceived as one.
ies. 1 9 In other words, in ancient T h r a c i a n culture the priestly status was
architecturally bound, and the entity of God-Temple - Priest was an emblem-
The subject of ancient "doctrinal and mysterial society" on the Balkans
atic sign of the religion maintained by a particular institution.
requires investigation of a frequently neglected and difficult to access corpus of
In some Bulgarian analyses of mytho-narratives, "Apollo's homosexual in- written and pictorial sources - about MUSIC (povaixd). Here the word is not
clinations", "Orpheus's misogyny" and "Orpheus w h o learned m a l e love" are used in the sense in which it appears in today's unhealthy sound environment,
explained as a "distant memory [?] of the sacred sex change among shamans" where "music" is an amateur term for everything that sounds. Ethnomusicology
(EoraaHOB 1991: 85,86). This is a misunderstanding. The unidirectional inter- makes a serious distinction between sound, tone, pitch, scale, sound produc-
pretation of sacred sex change-^ misogyny confuses ritual form with literary tion, voicing/chanting, singing, especially in rituals. In ancient Greek written
form. Androgyny is not a mundane emotion but a ritual status, and shamans are sources, music-making is associated with an ancient religious context, with the
hardly aware that they are supposed to be "man- /woman-haters". It was cus- concepts of the divine origins of musicians, singers and sound (vocal and in-
tomary for shamans to have sexual intercourse with their nuptial spirit during strumental), with the idea of the ideal entity (syncretism) of the essential ele-
their ceremonies, conveyed by means of physical movements. At the same time, ments (the Muses). Hence the musicological term Music (i.e. of the Muses) as
a spirit may demand a change of dress or of some accessories in the shaman's an adjective denoting the interaction of music - speech - dance as a semantic
costume, but not necessarily a change of the shaman's sex (EacnjioB 1975: whole in rituals. When used to refer to rituals, povaixa implies the roots and
135). T h i s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n is n o t a universally obligatory ritual feature; it is justification of a particular performance (vocal or instrumental) and even of its
strictly individual and unpredictable - it may occur on one and the same day,
during one and the same shamanic rite, at different ages, twice or several times
20
in the shaman's lifetime, and it may last for an unpredictable period of time (see For more on their divine genealogy, see Pind. IV. Pyth. Scol. ad 176: "For it is through
chapter "Rites and Concepts")-. The connection between the universal idea of the Muses and far-shooting Apollo that there are singers and cithara-players upon the earth;
but kings are of Zeus" (HTT 1:73); 176 b: "And from Apollo came ... the renowned Orpheus";
cf. Pind. IV. Pyth. ad 176-183. - HTT I: 72.
19 21
A temple and class of priests/prophets are mentioned by Pompeius Tragus in his Horn. Ilias. II Scol. ad 595: (Thamyris) "is the first man to have loved another male"
account of the attack of the Gauls on the Delphians (Pompei Trogiex. Histor. Philipp. XXIV (HTT I: 10); Sim. Epig. Fr. 126: "the immortal.singer Anacreon, who composed songs ...
7, 8. - TM: 249-250); in Aristophanes: "... the Thracians call Sabazios Dionysos and their about the sweetest love longings of boys" (HTT I: 65); (Pseudo) Plut. De fluv. et mont. nom.
priests Sabai/Zafiovq (Aristophanes. Sfikes. Schol. ad 9 - HTT I: 156; emphasis added). X: "Strymon, son of Ares and Helike, upon learning about the death of Rhesos, was over-
The sources also mention a polis priestly class that described the sacred rites; there is also come by despair and threw himself in the river Palestine,.which was renamed Strymon" (TM:
evidence about the oral/ethnic Orphic rites in Clement of Alexandria (Clem. Alex. Strom. V 294); Arr. Peripl. 21,23: "[in the temple] they worship together with him [Achilles] Patroclus
46, 4-47, 1.), and in Euripides - about the charms inscribed by Orpheus on "tablets... at the • • • Achilles ... was so constant in his love and friendship, that he did not hesitate to die after
sanctuary of Dionysos in Thrace/Haemus" (Eurip. Alkist. Schol. ad 968. - HTT I: 106); see the death of his beloved" (TM: 306-307); Stobei. Antolog. VI20: (from a poem by Phanocles)
also OOJI AJI. 2002: 333. "[T]he Thracian Orpheus fell in love with Calais, son of Boreas" (TM: 424).

98 99
11
stylistic profile/form in and by the concepts of the relevant community. To judge chants b u t that which was typical of and recurrent in Thracian and ancient
from the ancient sources, povaixa also means a tangible sound image outlined Greek music, the ethos of the sound and the "type" of musical thinking. Their
!i 1 by the unity of melody and rhythm, a repeated musical structure (or melodic accounts make no mention of "incoherent speech" and unintelligible "dialogues",
patterns) and their distinctive stylistic features according to the particular com- of a "chaotically" improvised sound environment (typical of the,shaman's trance-
munity's criteria. like state) either in esoteric or in exoteric communities; the songs composed by
There is ample evidence in ancient Greek sources of the existence of Mu- singers were remarkable for the mellifluence of their melody.14.
sic knowledge and skills manifested in the vocal, instrumental, and vocal-in- Typically, the ancient sources-describe ancient Greek and Thracian povaixa
strumental musical' tradition based on a system of hypo- and hyper-tetrachords and music-making in the context of various events, indirectly conveying the
(scales, Ancient Greek p o v r / v - Aeolian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Ionian, etc.); former's symbolic meaning and connection with faith and rites.25 The repre-
of various musical instruments, musical-stylistic, musical-regional and musi- sentation of a musician's gesture as symbolizing a particular situation can be
cal-poetic genres with different subjects and functions (such as epic, wedding, seen in the cupolaof the Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak (fourth-third century BC):
lamentatory, festive, Dionysian, or chain-dance ones dedicated to Artemis), 22 to the right of the chieftain are two women, each holding a salpinx in her right
etc. The existence of song cycles, of s i n g e r s / i n s t r u m e n t a l i s t s (Hesiodus, Fr. hand; their left, hand hangs down, index finger pointing to the ground (Fig.
192 - H T T I, 57; Solin, 9, 10-22. - T M , 390) and, generally, of advanced 12). The deity-instrument-rite interconnection is conveyed unambiguously in
Music skills, is only to be expected in a sedentary society with a well-devel- ancient Greek literature. "Many barbarians conduct negotiations with flutes and
oped religious ideology. 23 lyres to propitiate their opponents. Theopompus says in his Histories: The Getae
It is well-known that the oeuvre of every performer was relatively "new", conduct negotiations holding citharas in their hands and playing t h e m " (Athen.
that it was based on traditional experience and interpreted inherited Music pat- Dipnosoph. X I V 627 d. - T M : 370). In this socio-political context, the impor-
terns (poetic, melodic, motional). This also applies to the shaman's perform- tance of the figure of the musician/instrument is hardly due to their professional
ances. Let me remind the reader that the sound picture ("the song") through ability and skills. They personify a symbolic function and belief in the unity of
which shamans enact their "journey" spiritually and physically does not belong instrument/deity. The carrying of musical instruments (^ weapons) symbolizes
to them. And quite often, similarly to individual/personal songs, it is different in the presence and carrying of the God/Goddess, the divine essence that makes
form. The concept that it is not that the shaman composes songs but that the spirit the carrier practically invincible and superior to their opponents.
appears in song probably also determines the specific sound environment of In the Thracian and ancient Greek tradition, singers/musicians and most
shamanic rituals, indirectly conveying the idea of the reversed order in the musical instruments are of divine or semi-divine origin; 26 they are accessories
otherworld. Unlike ancient Greek and Thracian society, classical shamanic com- of deities that are often protectors of poleis. One example of this type of sym-
munities have never had a class of professional musicians/singers or a wide bolic meaning of musical instruments is the i m a g e of a cithara on a Chalcidian
range of advanced musical instruments. The available evidence about music- coin from the fourth century B C minted by the Chalcidian League (Fig. 13).
making, musical instruments and genres on the Balkans indicates a fundamen- Because of the concepts of the divine election and mythical origin of singers/
tally different musical-poetic and motional "situation" which excludes the spe- musicians (some of w h o m are believed to be direct descendants of the Muses),
cific improvised and untempered sound production and behaviour of shamans ancient sources indirectly suggest that they had mantic skills 27 and the right to
and their community. Of course, ancient observers have not recorded concrete
24
22 See Diod., IV 25,1-4 (TM: 183) - about Orpheus; Sophoclis. Tamyris. Fr. 224. (HTT
See Aeschil Per. Schol. ad 938, ad 1054 (HTT I: 83-84); Anakreon. Mel. Ill, Fr. 43 !: 97) - about Thamyris; Horn. Ill Hymni Dionys. B 8-12. (HTT I: 49) - about sacred songs
= Athen. Dipnosoph. 10, 427. (HTT I: 63); Hesiod, Fr. 192 (HTT I: 57); Pind. IV. Nem. •n honour of Dionysos.
Scol. ad 67 (HTT I: 77); Eurip. Iphig. 421-438. (HTT I: 115; Diogenes Ath. Semele, Fr. 1- 25
For details on the structure, making and representations of the salpinx, see PaiceBa-
= Athen. Dipnosoph. 14, 636 A (HTT I: 148 - for more on the worship of Artemis at sacred MopiboBa 1959: 97.
sites by Lydian and Bactrian girls with songs accompanied by the trigon/Tpiycovcov, and on 26
See Athen. Dipnosoph. IV 184 a. about the syrinx, aulos and magadis; about the epic
the performance of at>A.6c,; for more on rhapsodists, i.e. reciters of epic poems, and on Poet Euphorion (276 BC), who says that "Hermes discovered the monokalamos [i:e. single-
Homerids or Homeric rhapsodists, seeTLnaTOH 1979: 438, 440. reed] syrinx, but others tell it was Seuthes and Rhonaces of the Maedoi [in the region of the
23
Aristophanes's reference (Batpaxoi. Schol. ad. 681 - HTT I: 164) to "Cleophon the Middle Strouma]"- TM: 370.
[Thracian] maker of lyres", is also telling; Mavroeidis (1995: 153) provides similar evidence about 27
See, for example, the account from the third century AD of Solinus 9, 10-22: "Philip
the making of the aulos. The reference to makers of musical instruments indicates that they consti- [the father of Alexander the Great] ... lost his right eye ... this loss was preceded by a
tuted a professional class; they usually made a particular part/parts of the musical instrument which Portentous omen: at his wedding celebrations, the flute-players summoned for the occasion
required special skills. This tradition has been preserved in folklore to this very day. •• sang the song of the Cyclops as if to cheer up the guests" (TM: 390).

100 101
T r

\ .<
1 copulate with divine and semi-divine figures (through hierogamy). This is con- consciousness ... fir Bacchic frenzy and all similar emotions are most suitably
If veyed metaphorically in Xanthos the Lydian's "moral" version of the myth about expressed by the flute, and are better set to the Phrygian than to any other mode.
Alpheus, son of Sangarios (a river in Phrygia where there is a temple to the The dithyramb, for example, is acknowledged to be Phrygian" (Aristoteles.
. I
mountain Demeter). H e taught Athena to play the aulos (ocuA,r|i;iKfiv), and was Polit. 1342a 33-35 - 1342b. - H T T II: 109). 30
struck by lightning because he raped the goddess (Xantos. Lidika, Fr. 1., Scol. Whereas the different types of possession in rites may have a different
Apoll. Rhod. 2, 724. - H T T I: 191). In shamanic rites, the concept of an in- sound expression, both vocal and instrumental, music-making and especially
strument belonging to the supreme sky or another deity is absent. In Siberia, cataleptic trance are two opposite and mutually exclusive states. To judge
the Sacred Sky does not "discover" or give someone a musical instrument, and from the relevant sources, there is a fundamental difference between possession
there is n o semi-divine lineage of musicians; the Sky is not involved in the among the Thracians, the induction of "God into the believer" with the help of a
acquisition and making of the shaman's drum, which is a product of the shaman/ musical instrument (aulos), a song/melody and a m o d e (the Phrygian m o d e or
I i
spirit helper relationship. In other, words, the "musical" activity of shamans is scale), on the one hand, and on the other, among the Siberian shamanic peoples
connected with the animistic spiritual sphere and the world of spirits, and not where such a "canonical" relationship in "musical thinking" is absent. The ex-
with a "pantheon" of gods. God and spirit have different statuses in the hierar- pression of a dream/trance in a song/melody or singing in a trance-like state
chy of religiosity and statehood, and they are "voiced", musically as well as upon "Orphic possession" is also found in the following w e l f k n o w n and vari-
ritually, in entirely different ways. ously interpreted account of Pausanius: "[W]hen it seemed good to the god the
In various written and historical sources on the Balkans, the different dei- following events befell the citizens. About midday a shepherd was asleep lean-
ties are represented holding particular musical instruments. 2 8 O n e of the most ing against the grave of Orpheus, and even as he slept he began to sing poetry of
certain and repeatedly noted links is that between the Great M o t h e r Goddess Orpheus in a loud and sweet voice" (Paus. I X 3 0 , 4 - 1 2 - T M : 313; e m p h a s i s
(known in the Classical and Greco-Roman Age as Cybele, Demeter, Hecate, added). 3 1
Artemis, etc.) and the reed wind instruments used in Thraco-Phrygian Orphic
mysteries (according to Strabo - Aeschil. Edonoi. Fr. 71. = Strabo X 3, 16. - The association of particular musical instruments with particular ritual
H T T I: 86; Fig. 14): "Box-tree flutes [ccfAotx;]... are nothing ... b u t Phrygian situations, especially in ancient societies, seems to elude the majority of non-
... Each of the flutes [ccuXcpv] has a straight tip and plays for the Phrygian music scholars. Underlying the ethos of a particular string or wind instrument
goddess" (Kallias. Ped. Fr. 18. - H T T 1:169-170). Musicians (including cithara- (chordophone or aerophone) and its n a m e are different ritual and even ethno-
players in the Hellenistic Age) are often depicted with their faces turned up cultural patterns of behaviour. That is why the translation of avXcov/avXovc,/
(Fig. 15). Plato writes about the auloi as "most divine", which "alone stir and avXoi into English as flute/flutes/flute-playing or into Bulgarian as qbneuma/
m a k e manifest those w h o are in need of the gods" (Plato. Charm. Minos. 318a. (pjieumu/ceupem na qbneuma ( H T T I: 83-84,169-170; H T T II: 9 6 , 1 0 1 , 1 0 2 ,
- E O O II: 101). The aulos i s typical of the iconography of Dionysos (Strabo. 109,165), is irresponsibly i n a c c u r a t e , as is t h a t of avhrjxfjga xov Zapd&ov
Geograph. 6 3,16>- T M : 220). 2 9 Citing accounts of "Dionysian possession",
Rouget associates the instrument with the Phrygian modus (Rouget 1985: 226).
30
Aristotle explains that "among the modes the Phrygian has the same power as As regards the scales which are mentioned, in ancient Greek sources and which spread
the flute [ocuA.O'uc;] among instruments, for both are orgiastic and both heighten to Europe precisely from the Balkans, I want to draw special attention to the following error
in the section on "Siberian Folk Music" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musi-
cians (vol. 12, 1980: 399): "Anhemitonic pentatonic scales ... are the mosf frequently ob-
28
Of the worship of Cotys among the Edonians, and her musical instruments: "Also served in the music of Siberian peoples, though semitonal pentatonic scales and diatonic
resembling these rites [the sacred rites of Rhea and Dionysos] are the Cotytian and the scales are occasionally used [emphasis added]." Songs in diatonic scales have a tempered
Bendideian rites practised among the Thracians, among whom the Orphic rites had their be- melody developed within the full ambit of two tetrachords (hyper-/hypo-) with specific and
ginning ... [The] adorable Cotys among the Edonians ... who hold mountain-ranging instru- stable intervals which determine the modus. This phenomenon is not found in communities
ments..." Of the attendants of Dionysos: "[0]ne, holding in his hands the bombyces with classical shamanhood. Parallel with the absence of diatonic scales, according to Makarov
[Poufitixaq/PouPTixat;], toilsome work of the turner's chisel ... while another causes to (MaicapoB 1997: 206), "The peoples that have retained shamanic cults (such as the Yakut,
resound the bronze-bound cotylae ... the semblance of drums [TOUTtdvou], as of subterra- Samodian and other Palaeo-Asian peoples) have apre-pentatonic thinking [emphasis added]."
nean thunder, rolls along, a terrifying sound ... these rites resemble the Phrygian rites" (Aeschil. Pentatonic scales, distinguished by specific hiatuses, are obviously confused with the so-
Edonoi. Fr. 71. = Strabo X 3, 16.- HTT I: 86-87; emphasis added). called pentatonic sound, which is still not a modus.
29 31
The images are systematized with commentary by Rakeva-Morfova (PaiceBa- Interpreted by Marazov (Mapa30B 1992: 313) as follows: "Actually, the shepherd
w
MoprhoBa 1959: 77-122); for more on the meaning, structure and finds of the aulos on the ho was asleep by the grave of Orpheus received the shamanic [?] gift from the bones of the
Balkans from the seventh century BC onwards, see Marcuse 1975: 654-656. singer."

102 103
 (Aristophanes. Ornites. Schol. ad 874 ^ H T T I: 160) as the flute-player hood, musical instruments with this type of graphic signs were probably used in
Sabazioslqbneumucma Ca6a3uu - a n d , u n f o r t u n a t e l y , o t h e r s u c h like. esoteric male communities - as symbols of the initiated, as symbols of belong-
Ethnomusicologists have been pointing out this misunderstanding for years ing to the Orphic (mysterial, doctrinal) community. 3 2 The tympanon is also as-
(PaiceBa-MopdpoBa 1959:94; Anoyanakis 1979:161; Rouget 1985;,Mavroeidis sociated with another Orphic element in a number of scenes on vessels which
1995: 154; Neykova 2003; etc.). It ought to stop for the simple reason that show figures holding it above a column, one of the aniconic symbols of Sabazios
linguists do not have the right to invent musical contents when translating texts. the Son 33 (Fig. 23, 24).
In musical organology, the aulos and the flute are two structurally different mu- Although there are many pictures of the tympanon from ancient times, it is
sical instruments which have different connotations and carry different con- difficult to say if it was a one-headed or two-headed instrument. According to
cepts in the ritual tradition. Marcuse, the Greek tympanon (later the Roman tympanum) "was still a woman
T h e "spirit - breath - musical instrument - life - death" semantic row [?] instrument. Generally it was provided with two membranes, was held in
underlies the early uses of the aulos in the doctrinal and Bacchic Thracian and one hand, upright on its rum as theretofore, and struck with the fingers of the
ancient Greek faith-rites as well as in the later folklorized concepts and uses of other hand. Probably introduced from the East in connection with the cult of
the wind instrument as a mediator. Precisely this ritual-symbolic use of reed Kibele" (Marcuse 1975: 131-132). In some Bulgarian texts, the tympanon is
instruments, including in sacrificial and burial rites, is known even from Etrus- translated as tupan?4 Stockmann thinks that some of the Neolithic drawings in
can finds and representations (sixth-seventh century BC) of the subalo (double Catal H u y u k represent a "small round drum ... with one skin" (found in the
aulos) and the Roman aulos tibia/tubia duplex. According to Plutarch, the tibia same region in later times as well) and a drummer playing the drum (Stockmann
and tumpanum/tympanum were played during Roman cremations and funerals 1986: 13-14 3 5 ). The tympanon and the contemporary tupan (two-headed skin
"so as to drown out the cries of the sacrificial animals" (Marcuse 1975: 657, drum) on.the Balkans differ from Siberian shaman drums both in structure and in
659). Plutarch's explanation attests to a decline and distortion (or ignorance?) ritual uses. They are not decorated with the images typical of shamanhood (of
of the concept of the transcendent magic/divine function of sound together with the universe and its stratification, of spirit helpers, etc.), nor are they regarded
the sacrificial animal. In Thrace, "Mariandynus made famous the playing of as a "carrier" to other worlds - as a horse, elk, reindeer, etc. The classical
laments on the flute [ai)A,w8tav]... There are also Mariandynian flutes [ocvAot] relationship between the shaman and the shaman drum (as well as the relevant
which are specially designed for laments" (Aeschil. Per. Schol. ad 938. - H T T concepts and rituals in making t h e shaman drum) are entirely unknown on the
I: 83-84). These musical meanings have been transmitted over the centuries. Balkans. The way the instruments are held and played is entirely different - the
The resounding "body" of the tympanon (TDp7tdvorj/Tt>p7tava) and the aulos scenes on vessels and stone carvings found on the Balkans show the tympanon
is probably the ritual prototype of the contemporary Bulgarian gaida and tupan, held upright in the left or right hand; there is no drumstick.
which are played to this very day at panegyric sacrifices in M o u n t Strandja, but
not for the reason given in Plutarch's profane explanation (CDOJI B., HeiiKOBa In the Hellenistic age, string instruments played a key role in religious and
P. 2000:213-226). other rites. The lyre and the cithara in the depictions of Orphics are typical
Reed wind instruments were played quite often together with membranophones. Hellenic accessories, whereas "the Thracian instrument of the pre-literate
A well-preserved red-figure krater from the fourth century B C shows a goddess
holding a tympanon with bells/jingles in her left hand while striking the mem- 32
brane with her right hand; behind her is a satyr with an aulos (Fig. 16; 17). At Another distinctive feature of the representations of such figures is their nudity ("a
direct indication ... of heroism, of ... anthropodaimonization"- OOJI AJI. 2002: 238), unlike
the same time, the scenes depicted on ancient vessels often show another type of the shaman's "dressing up", donning the signs of the spirits.
tympanon - held by men, with distinctive graphic signs. A m o n g the gifts to the 33
In rock mysterial rites, the column, including as an "urn-grave", represents a moun-
ruler unearthed in archaeological excavations in the area of the village of Starosel tain peak touched by the sunrays at sunrise in the sanctuary (OOJI AJI. 1997: 353; 2002: 218,
in Bulgaria is a skyphos depicting on one side "a-scene of t w o conversing young 247; OOJI B. 2000: 59).,
34
m e n " (to q u o t e KHTOB 2002: 12, 16). I m u s t say that I c a n n o t " h e a r " any For example: "Hann 6jiecHa pa3nycHaTOCTra Ha aceHHTe n 6neHeTO Ha mbnanu
,11 Mu7taviouo<;] n. Te3H lecra BHKOBC Ca6a3uu ..." (Aristophanes. Lys. Schol. ad 387-390
conversation in this scene, b u t I see in it a symbolic message depicted t h r o u g h
~ HTT I: 162), translated into English as "Has not our women's lewdness shown itself in
stylized figures: the m a n t o t h e left h o l d s in his left h a n d a t y m p a n o n with now they beat their drums for Sabazius" (http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/aristophanes/
a dark cross-like sign with four dots between the arms of the cross; the same tysistrata.htm).
35
dots occur on the cheeks (right and left) of the two men. Such images are also Ibid. (p. 14), with a sharp critique of archaeologist James Mellaart's inadequate opin-
found on the figure of Dionysos himself (Fig. 18, 19, 20, 21, 22). In all likeli- •on about the drawings: according to Mellaart, the drawings "reveal no hints of musical ac-
tivities".

104 105
 Orpheus w a s the Phrygian aulos [oa)X,ot>£]" (OOJI AJI. 1986: 173). "Amphion in the P e r m region (according to a n u m b e r of publications as well as according
and Zethus, sons of Z e u s and Antiope ... Amphion had a lyre given to him by to my first-hand observations) and the "peripheral" shamanhood of the Ob-
the Muses, with which he charmed the stones into place while building the Ugrians also raise doubts as to the presence of such relicts in the image of
walls [of Thebes]" (Horn. Bias. XIII. Schol. ad 302 ^ H T T I: 35; emphasis Vainamoinen in Finnish (not Lapp) folk texts. Vainamoinen is a rune singer, the
I til added). T h e mytho-narratives about the organization of space through music creator and first player of the original kantele, whose "nature" and making is
and about the divine origin of some musical instruments suggest that there are a a typical metaphor for the powers precisely of cultural heroes. 3 6
number of similarities between the mythical founders/singers and the demiurge Here, as in the interpretations of "shamanic archetypal figures" on the Bal-
as a cultural hero (Pind. IV Pyth. Schol. ad 176; H T T 1:73; for more on musical kans, we have yet another misconception, namely, the equation of two interre-
instruments, see Athen. I V 184 a, X I V 636 F.; T M : 370). In the written ver- lated but fundamentally different realities: a narrative (mythographic) and a
sions from the Late Hellenistic and Early Imperial Age, Orpheus also appears ritual one, i.e. cultural hero and shaman. A n d Talve's attempt to define them
in this category ("Orpheus once playing the cithara together with the Muses as two levels that emerged consecutively in time is disproved by the tradition
drew together trees by his songs, drew together the beasts of the fields" - Eurip. itself. In Siberian mytho-narratives, both the shaman and the storyteller are iden-
Baxhai. 5 5 6 - 5 7 5 - H T T 1:115, emphasis added; "Men say that he by the music tified with the main hero who is represented, to one extent or another, as a
of his songs charmed the stubborn rocks upon the mountains and the course of "cultural" hero; in rites,.however, they perform different tasks and their func-
rivers. A n d the wild oak-trees ... stand in ordered ranks close together, the tions are not interchangeable. Commenting on the c o m m o n features and "reli-
same which under the charm of his lyre he led down from Pieria" - Apoll. gious-worldview traditions" in .shamanhood and the folktale genre (more pre-
Rhod. Argonautica. 125 - T M : 132). T h e Finnish folk texts about Vainamoinen cisely, Min the extraordinary figure and position of the Altaic storyteller),
are typologically similar to the ancient Greek literary descriptions of the "Orphic Sadalova writes (Ca/iajiOBa 1997: 150) that they should not be equated. T h e
as charmer": difference between a cultural hero and a shaman, between individual and su-
pra-individual, between cosmic and human, is pointed out by N o v i k as well:
The song of Vainamoinen's kantele music was used as a kind of incantation, now "Unlike myths, which describe the acquisition of essential cultural values (fire,
for fishing, now for hunting. Chr. Ganander wrote in 1789: "Fowlers, hunters, and spring water, sacred objects, etc.), during the kamlanie shamans seek in the
woodsmen asked Vainamoinen to play his harp, so that its sweet music would call world of spirits the 'forces' and souls that are necessary to the individual, i.e.
forth all the game" ... Vainamoinen ... who, with his "fisherman's words" or "hunter's
they achieve individual, and not cosmic (in the sense of universally significant,
words", plays the kantele and sings, until the animals of the forest and water, birds and
supreme) acquisitions" (HOBHK 2002). T h e string instrument in the hands of
fishes, arrive to listen to him. (Rahkonen 1989:4,5, with References; emphasis added)
V a i n a m o i n e n a l s o i n d i c a t e s t h a t it is w r o n g t o a s s o c i a t e h i m w i t h
Unfortunately, Vainamoinen, too, is associated by some scholars with s h a m a n h o o d . T h e p r o p o s i t i o n t h a t t h e lyre w a s " a n a n c i e n t t o o l for in-
shamanhood, which they claim existed on the territory of Scandinavia during ducing ecstasy" (EorAaHOB 1991: 83, citing M e u l i a n d F r a z e r ) , a n d espe-
the Neolithic ("Before the Proto-Finnic period, in Paleolithic times" - Tolbert cially that "his "[Orpheus'] musical instrument served for conjuring spirits"
1990: 46). Vainamoinen is claimed to have been a "shaman in the Iron Age (BoraaHOB 1991: 87; e m p h a s i s a d d e d ) has no justification whatsoever in
fishing and hunting cultures. Later, in the myths of creation, he appears with ancient mythographic sources. T h e s a m e author's attempt to associate the an-
Ilmarinen as a cultural hero, as a great singer, kantele player and seer" - Talve cient lyre-player with "the authentic [?] p r o p e r t i e s of s h a m a n s ' s t r i n g i n s t r u -
1997: 227, 237; emphasis added). Vainamoinen, however, is not L a p p but a ments, r e g a r d e d as b i r d s o n w h i c h t h e s h a m a n flies t o t h e w o r l d b e y o n d "
"central figure" in Finnish epic poetry, and his role as a shaman is highly im- (Bor,naHOB 1991: 87, citing Meuli), is j u s t as clunisy. M e u l i ' s a c c o u n t s of
plausible ("The central figure in epic poetry was the ancient sage Vainamoinen, string i n s t r u m e n t s a n d his o b s e r v a t i o n s m a d e before 1935 a r e explicably
a shaman w h o s e origin w a s closely c o n n e c t e d t o t h e c r e a t i o n m y t h " - fragmentary and inaccurate. It is quite obvious that this type of concepts regard-
A s p l u n d 1995: 23; e m p h a s i s a d d e d ) . A t t h e s a m e time, "[IJittle is known ing shaman's drums have been transferred onto string instruments and, moreo-
about the role of the kantele in the actual production of trance. While the kantele ver, onto string instruments in some "peripheral" Siberian territories; there the
is mentioned prominently in runes as a source of power by which people are put
to sleep or animals are enchanted ... T h e kantele may have served a function 36
In the different runic versions, Vainamoinen created the body of the kantele from the
similar to that of the Lapp shaman's drum, as a source of sound" (Rahkonen Jawbone of a great pike or from the tailbone of a reindeer, its string from the hair of a maiden,
1989: 6; emphasis added). While I do not want to argue with these interpreta- of the Demon's virgin or of a "good stallion", and its nails from the teeth of a great salmon or
tions, I must point out that the absence of shamanhood among the Finno-Ugrians Pike (Rahkonen 1989: 3, 9, 12). According to Martti Haavio, the "creation of the kantele"
runes are related to the international tale type 780 "The Singing Bone".

106 107
 ill
appearance of string instruments is a sign of departure from "classical" shamanic indigenously regional or the ethnic as a different type of culture. Frazer, Meuli,
rites with their, distinctive "music-making". Chapter Three noted that similar Dodds and, to a large extent, Hultkranz and Eliade all fell into this trap; and, I
types of p e r f o r m a n c e are found a m o n g peoples w h e r e the e x i s t e n c e of would say, so have the contemporary views about shamanhood and "shaman-
Ii "shamanhood proper" is still a matter of debate, and in territories where there ism" on the Balkans. It seems that those who have "discovered" that the phe-
are most probably relicts of shamanhood as a result of ritual and ideological nomenon is supposedly "inter-national" 3 7 hardly care that traditional rituals
syncretism (for example, among the Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Turkmen professional (including shamanhood) are not a bag full of mummified remains but an ethno-
singers baqsa, some of w h o m are also "healers"- Rahkonen 1989: 5, etc.). cultural " m o d e " and way of life. It is precisely this " m o d e " - together with the
A t t h e s a m e time, t r y i n g t o p r o v e t h a t a p a r t i c u l a r i n s t r u m e n t was musical language, which is most conservative and resistant to various ideologi-
• :'n cal and national-political onslaughts - that reveals the specificity of a particu-
used t o i n d u c e " e c s t a s y " is a pointless exercise: " A m o n g all t h e instru-
m e n t s u s e d for p o s s e s s i o n m u s i c not one stands out as the rule. ... The lar type of traditional culture.
techniques used to induce trance vary - or varied - a great deal from one coun- Neither the Thracian nor the ancient Greek ideology, which was both in-
try or continent to another" (Rouget 1985: 76-77, 129; emphasis added). One formed by the Thracian one and viewed as "foreign", is an ideology of a shamanic
telling example is the nestinar (anastenaria) ritual in the village of Agia Eleni community. Irrespective of how people regard the Other in the various political
(Northern Greece), where the gaida (bagpipes) gradually disappeared from configurations on the Balkans* the dynamics with which history is written in
practice after the 1950s, but the G r e e k nestinari continue to keep their faith these lands is fundamentally different from the flow of time and thought in North-
without asking why the gadulka is used in the ritual. There are other similar em Asia and the Arctic Circle. Irrespective of how we view musical organol-
examples in the Balkan ritual tradition. An aerophone may have been replaced ogy, religiosity and Orphic "memory-knowledge", the methods of sculpture or
by a chordophone for various reasons, and any proposition about its "authen- temple construction, irrespective of the epoch from which w e choose to pick
tic", original use in a particular ritual act in ancient times needs to be proved. and compare figures - i f we are not helpless structuralists but insist on keeping
Trance induction by means-of musical instruments and specific "sound levels" in mind the context in which beliefs and faith shaped, generally speaking, dif-
is based above all on the cultural pattern of behaviour and cosmogonic con- ferent types of behaviour, we must not forget that:
cepts of the community where it is practised. In the Thracian doctrinal ritual
system, the string instrument (the lyre or cithara) was not the instrument of those • The Siberian peoples do not have an early political and ideological
involved in Bacchic mysteries, i.e. of those who were in a state of mania. The history of the type of the Thracian or ancient Greek one; they do not have a
ethos (r)9oc;) of the string instrument did not introduce God into one but raised well-developed institutionalized religious system.
one to God. This was another "step" in.religiosity on the Balkans. In the follow- • Classical shamanhood is an oral ritual phenomenon which does not have
ing centuries, string instruments would continue to accompany narration, epic sacred books and writings.
poets and singers. By virtue of an ancient inherited model, string instruments, • Shamans are not consolidated and coordinated in an institution (unlike
together with the process of narration itself, "constructed" mythical space. This the Orphics, Buddhist, Christian and other clerics); classical shamans do not
raised the initiated singer to G o d - a belief symbolically preserved in the defi- have a centralized "managing board", guild, college, 38 etc.
nition of blind singers/gadwZ&a-players in Southwestern Bulgaria as God's men • Classical shamans do not build or enter temples and submound temple
(Bozhii hora). This, however, is a different,subject altogether. facilities. They achieve their sacred mission through inner vision and soul jour-
neys, not through established temple ceremonies.
• The Siberian shamanic communities do not have a social hierarchically
There are many commonalities in the spiritual and symbolic sphere of peo- stratified ritual system of the type found on the Balkans ip ancient and later
ples that may otherwise differ significantly. N o one has the right to claim own- times. They do not have a doctrinal ritual system supported by and supporting
ership of the katabasis and "flight", isolation, "fantastic image" or vision, the the authoritarian status of the king-priest and the.concepts of his divinity.
voice of the otherworld, mediation - let alone of the singing and dancing ac-
companying a particular form of contact with the otherworld. N o one has a 37
"Sarmatians and Scythians, as well as probably their neighbour Slavs, were shamanists,
copyright on prophecy and clairvoyance. Whereas it is true that identifying ty- and so were the Thracians and Hellenes they found on the Balkans" (KanoHHOB 1995: 69).
pological similarities is useful as a student exercise, if they are taken in them- 38
Contrary to what Bogdanov claims (EoraaHOB 1991: 71-86) about ancient Thracian
selves they may lead to dangerous generalizations. Typological approaches ig- society: "an association of man shamans of an aristocratic character"; 83: "the shaman ...
nore the specific ethno-cultural levels, and the processes of their cyclic con- united with other shamans in a special college"; "the college of shamans"; "the shamanic
struction and passage to a higher level. They disregard the specificity of the college of priests of the Mother Goddess", etc. (emphasis added).

108 109

Jjft'Wp L
 • Shamans do not found or practice "mysteries"; they are not "kings" and selves. "Many, through divine inspiration, are not burned when fire is introduced to
spiritual leaders of doctrinal societies. them..." Fire rites in the mysteries of Sabazios and of the Great Mother Goddess
• In the Siberian shamanic societies there are no mystery-initiated aristo- were most probably Christianized before the tenth century through the pair SS
cratic strata; shamans pass through individual stages of initiation; they do not Constantine and Helena (as mother and son). Fire rites have remained a carrier of the
undergo doctrinal or warrior initiation, which was compulsory for aristocrats pre-Christian idea of deities and a successor to the Orphic paredria to this very day.
Because of the specificity of the socio-economic and ideological situation in
in the Thracian and other sedentary agricultural societies. In this connection, the
Southeasthern Thrace, significant elements of the ancient mysterial rites have been
proposition that "shamanic initiation is simply a higher stage in aristocratic"
preserved as afolk tradition - in the so-called nestinarstvo/Greek anastenaria among
initiation ( M a p a 3 0 B 1992: 341) is alogical; here I can only ask where is the
the population in the Mount Strandja area (Southeastern Bulgaria) and among the
aristocratic initiation and class in the indigenous Siberian communities in which descendants of nestinar families in some settlements in Northern Greece (who were
there is no vertical social stratification? resetded there after the 1920s). In the Mount Strandja area, nestinarstvo is part of the
• In the classical shamanic societies (not the late Central Asian ones), folkloric system of the so-calledpanagyri (sing, panagyr), major village-festivals in
there is n o class of professional musicians or well-developed musical instru- honour of patron saints ensuring the well-being and fertility of the village and its land
ments of the type found in Thracian society. stock. The nestinari (sing, nestinar) themselves are spiritual and physical leaders of
• T h e idea of the dual (solar-chthonic) God, the Son of the Great Mother the ritual act, through whom the saints express their wishes and "orders".
Goddess who conceives by him and gives birth to the Orphic-king, the idea that The nestinari (Greek anastenari) have the following distinctive features: con-
underlies the ideology of Thracian Orphism, j s fundamentally different from the tact with the saint (through inner vision, in a state of trance or, as the local people call
belief in the unpersonified supreme heavenly being and in the animistic sphere it, prihvashtane/possession); prophecies and predictions of global or community-
- of spirit mediators, spirit helpers, malignant spirits... wide importance (about the fate of the village or the country); treading on, tram-
pling out embers (spread in a large circle in the village square), which in late folk
• T h e "memory-knowledge" about the Universe and its mysteries - the
tradition was motivated by the belief that this would "trample out", i.e. eliminate, all
object of Thracian mysterial and doctrinal rites - situated in a literary and
diseases and evil in the village, and "redeem the sins of all". This specific element,
archaeological environment, is Orphic, not shamanic. And the Thracian priest namely "trampling out", categorically distinguishes the nestinarstvo from the
cannot b e equated with the Siberian shaman, in the same way as the shaman's various forms of fire-walking {passing across embers) in the rest of the world.
drum is not a tupan or the aulos a flute... The nestinari were greatly respected in the community and they were sought for
advice throughout the year. In the past, they practically governed the village/villages.
(For details about the ritual, its sacred topoi and objects, nestinari panagyr instru-
APPENDIX. mental melodies, the musical instruments, the form in which the ritual is practised in
NESTINARSTVO Northern Greece, etc., see <DOJI B., HeHKOBaP. 2000).
(from CDOJI B., HeiiKOBa P. 2000, with References)

The nestinarstvo is a Palaeo-Balkan substratum of the solar ideology of the

Dionysian-Sabazian fire rites that existed in the Thraco-Phrygian contact zone (the
Balkans with ancient Anatolia/Asia Minor). It is documented in sources from the
Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Ancient ages. The etymology of the word probably
comes from the Greek anasta, meaning "serpent" (as one of the forms of Sabazios,
but also of Zagreus, represented as a serpent with bull-horns) or from the Greek
/en estia/in the fire-hearth, which, too, does not change the Zagrean-Sabazian mean-
ing of the ritual. Visualized worship of God by the initiates through "things carried
through fire" - sacred objects-mediators or the image of Sabazios himself - is typi-
cal of the ancient mysteries. In the first century BC, Strabo describes the temple of
the Great Mother Goddess/Artemis at Castabala/KaayPaXa, where the priestesses
"walk with naked feet over hot embers without pain". In a magic papyrus from Late
Antiquity, "the guardian of the threshing-floor, the three-headed and ox-eyed [wide-
eyed] Persephone, walks quickly through the fire". At the beginning of the fourth
century AD, Iamblichus reports that there are many who possess divine mantic, tell
the future through enthusiasmos/ and theophory, introduce and carry God into them-

110 111
7;TT

v • Southern Siberia ... we find the closest and immediate analogues of Bulgarian
shamanhood... (OBnapoB 1997: 20, 71)
• The kukeri danced [?] with weapons to the beat [?] of the music and bells
(hlopatari), and imitated [?!] an imaginary battle with the evil forces [?] ... The masks
of trie participants represent animals.... All these [?] peculiarities reveal the shamanic
character of the dances, especially considering that we have analogues [?] in Tibet,
ii China, Siberia and Mongolia.... The military and shamanic character of rusalii dances
SOUND AND RITUAL ALONG THE ROUTE is more than clear. ... The dances of the rusalii contain an obviously ecstatic [?!]
OF T H E BULGARS element and are related to the ancient mysteries and Asian cults and shamanism [with
which of all these?]. ... The religion and nature-philosophy of the ancient Bulgarians
are connected with shamanism... (AjieKcaH/tpoB /L 1999: 222, 224, 225, 270), etc.1
Considering the contents of traditional ritual and musical culture, I have
serious reasons to disagree with the proposition that shamanhood and "shaman- I am well aware that the overwhelming majority of Bulgarian researchers
ism" existed on the Balkans - as a relict in the ritual system of the Balkan in other fields will not hesitate to base their hypotheses on rituals involving
peoples "brought" by the ancient Bulgars and known also to the ancient Thracians music even though they know little if anything about ef/mo-'musicology. Nor can
and Greeks (from literary and pictorial sources) as supposedly indicated by I expect them to be able to read notations or, more precisely, note transcriptions
dubiously "shamanic" archaeological finds. I think that such a "transposition" of the so-called shamanic kamlanie. I am sure they have never even heard of it.
of structures and ethno-cultural values to the Balkans cannot contribute to the Simply put, its sound is very different from the idea and concept of song and
study of shamanhood itself or of indigenous Balkan traditions. instrumental music in the folk heritage on the Balkans. Here, as everywhere
The majority of Bulgarian publications touching on shamanhood are by else, the specific' sound and tone represent the specific spiritual contents of a
historians and art historians. They view "shamanism" as a specific technique particular territory. Any ritual that is claimed to be in "shaman-like" style, irre-
typical of different periods of history and, from this perspective, they find - on spective of whether it is purportedly found in archaeological material or as a
a "structural plane" - shamanic structures and "figures" in ancient Thrace, Greece, relict in late tradition, presupposes the existence of musical thinking and of a
and among the Bulgars. Actually, the problem is not that some authors think specific type of sound symbolism. As I have written before (OOJI B., HeHKOBa
differently but how they think. I have always wondered how someone could P. 2000: 174), every " s h a m a n o p h i l e " ought to bear in mind the " m a g i c " and
draw categorical conclusions about global ideological forms (for example, about active ritual group, the colossal figure of the Player (musician) as well as the
the existence of a particular ethno-cultural worldview or religion among the fact that Bulgarian musical folklore developed as a system with various appli-
ancient Bulgars) from fragmentary and unverified evidence, such as a handful of cations and principles of expression, and has a strict family-ritual and calen-
images carved in stone or separate objects whose provenance and ethnic ori- dar basis. Compared with the peoples practising shamanhood, it carries an-
gins are not clear. The pseudo-scientific character of such theses is intensified other, different type of ritual musical thinking and music-making, manner of
by a naive and at times incompetent interpretation of the actual finds and rituals, playing and performance, etc. The Bulgarian traditional musical-expressive style
as well as by their crass politicization: (as a "phenomenon of a cultural-genesic character" - OOJI AJI. 1997: 411) is
fundamentally different from the "musical grammar" of shamans. A n d it is not
• Among the Proto-Bulgarian population ... there was also shamanhood, a formed free, unpredictable sound invention and intoning but the repetition of constant
religious system [?] and worldview. ... The religious beliefs of the Proto-Bulgarian
melodic "figures" and tunes in a strictly fixed order that emanates the actual
rank-and-file people [?] ... reflect the earlier, pre-class and early-class forms of reli-
ideas, concept of the sacredness and successful performance of the rituals.
gious life. Animism, animatism, totemism practically meant a step back [?] in the social-
ideological development of society. The people's aspirations and sympathies [?] were Mythemes, religious concepts and their "personifications" are organized in a
directed at these earlier religious forms [?] because they reflected the periods in which
class struggle [?!] existed in much milder forms. ... We already have quite ample 1
written and mainly archaeological evidence about the existence of the shamanic institu- Kukeri: An ancient male masquerade ritual, a substratum of the Dionysian mysteries;
tion ... A dozen-odd [?] graffiti-drawings give us an idea about shamanhood... (Ana/DKOB 'he men taking part in the ritual go round the village, jumping up and down to the sound of
oells of various shapes and sizes tied to their waists; there are no musical instruments or
1999: 23, 24,37) s
°ngs during the village rounds; hence, speaking of "music", and especially of a beat, in the
• The numerous graphic drawings found in early Bulgarian settlements ... reflect r,t
ual is a sign of ignorance. Rusalii: An ancient male ritual performed in Southwestern Bul-
the aesthetic [?!] views of the people. .... In Middle and Central Asia and especially it1 garia until the first decades of the twentieth century. Known as kalush among the Vlachs in
Northern Bulgaria and in Romania.

112 113

ii - I
n

T h e B u l g a r i a n traditional ritual s y s t e m has n e v e r lost sight of the

system of acts/symbols, which functions also through a number of calendar-
Hi' "otherworldly" realms, the contact and constant interdependence between "this"
based rituals.The annual calendar ritual system of the Bulgarians is a legacy of
and the "other" world. Humanity has long been concerned about the otherworld
the ideology of statehood and the state, including of the model of classical
which, as we know well, it has contemplated, conceptualized and "attacked"
kingly initiation rites - a subject studied extensively in Bulgarian ethnology. A
I,I' from different directions, including through sound. The three-part vertical structure
different type of relicts of initiation rites is preserved in mytho-narratives and
I,I.' of the Universe itself, which is constantly pointed out as specific and typical of
stories, in the behaviour and acts of ritual groups (male and female) in Bulgar-
shamanhood, is a universal Indo-European model. We find evidence about the
ian folklore. Unlike the sound" "rights" and freedom of spirits, the vocal and
stratification of and gradual "passage" through the otherworld in various ritual
instrumental repertoire, i.e. the voice2 of ritual groups is fixed in terms of
acts and concepts, songs, artefacts and other objects in Bulgarian folklore (see
performance, irrespective of whether it repeatedly performs one and the same
chapter "Tura/Teiri/Tangra: Dues in Actu").
melodic motif/formula or a two- or three-line non-measured song. Figuratively
speaking, the "spirit" behind the voice of ritual groups has long since "frozen" In the vocal .heritage and rites of the Bulgarians, the concepts of the
in a constant melodic form and has no right to another melody. In the Bulgarian otherworld an r "'clothed" in sound in various forms - depending on the function
i i folk tradition this is, so to speak, an "overmastered" situation in which the and specificity of the ritual content, on whether the melody is performed by men
,i
i i' melodies have been taken to a higher level - that of a constant and regulated or women, on whether it is vocal or instrumental. These concepts are repro-
i
position. It is precisely in this position that the ritual figure (used here as a duced in different kinds of ritual songs, instrumental melodies, ritual silence,
general term) is very far from the idea of ideal transformation or identification etc. Generally speaking, the idea of the otherworldly is manifested directly and
(with a "spirit", for example). By virtue of an old principle of behaviour, the indirectly in the ritual sound-mediator. It is wrong, however, to assume that the
ritual group physically moves around the area which it consecrates - by danc- latter represents specifically a particular situation, that it necessarily evokes a
ing, traversing the path and walking around the area - thus enacting the mythical sense of sorrow, mysticism or joy; that similar oral/song storylines are con-
veyed through similar tonal configurations - or, in other words, that every ritual
subtext of the ritual act. song represents a specific sound "picture" of the otherworldly dimensions. This
Unlike shaman's drums, Bulgarian tupani are not decorated with images of last is indeed a specific feature of the shaman's journey, and probably also of
spirit helpers. The Bulgarians' concepts of a parallel world and of the ideal the bagsy and lamenters in the Finno-Karelian tradition. Similarly to oral lore,
substances in it are embodied in the belief in the magic functions of musical Bulgarian ritual melodies may be "narrative", recitative, piercing, monotonously
instruments in principle - as a means of contact with and5 a substitute for a circling/chanting; they may consist of two or more melodic lines phrased within
s u p r e m e deity (OOJI B., HeiiKOBa P . 2000: 167-175). F o r e x a m p l e , the a particular range and having a particular length, just as they may be a laconic
kaval is believed to enable shepherds to take their flocks "safely at night even musical expression/motif symbolizing an implicit idea.
i1 i
through the most dangerous places, even through the playfields of the samodivi
The utilitarian transcendent ritual sound, which is occasionally called the
[evil w o o d nymphs] themselves ... such kavali are associated with a devout
voice of the "otherworld" by the performers or the text of songs, is above all a
belief ... they are passed on only to heirs who, moreover, are almost made to
preserved musical symbol of the content of a particular ritual dimension and
swear that they will not sell them". 3 In some parts of Bulgaria fcavaZ-players
behaviour. Outside the concrete ritual situation, it loses its meaning and may die
were deeply respected and revered, unlike the players of the "humiliating" gusla
out together with the dying tradition. This type of ritual voice is recognized and
or gadulka (MapHHOB 1984: 598, 599). S u c h " d i s c r i m i n a t i o n " in t r a d i t i o n
realized through the context as well: song texts in which various figures and
c a n b e b a s e d only o n a n o b s o l e t e m y t h i c c o n c e p t of t h e p o w e r of the
i i situations represent inherited archaic concepts and mythemes, the ritual act it-
" m a g i c l a n g u a g e of p i p e s " a n d their divine origin. I n songs a l o n g these
self and its contents, through temporal, territorial, and physical parameters. This
"lines", t h e d e a d call o u t a n d s p e a k from the grave u p o n hearing the sound
can be illustrated by several examples.
of the kaval. Let me point out once again that Siberian shamans do not have a
Some of the most revealing examples of the meaning and role of ritual
wind instrument (aerophone) or the player - musical instrument - sound se-
sound are found in Bulgarian girls' rituals. In Western Strandja, for instance, the
mantic triad with the specific functions and forms found on the Balkans. v
oices of the girls accompanying the Enyova Bulya ritual 4 are described by
2
Voice (Bulg. glas) in Bulgarian folk terminology means the melody of a song and the
overall complex in diaphonic songs. 4
Enyova Bulya, literally "Enyo's Bride", is a ritual performed on Enyovden (lit. Enyo's
3 Ua
Analogous beliefs are also found in the Northern Caucasus: "Performance of the y, 24 June) by girls of marriageable age who are not yet married; on the evening before, the
'sheep's melody' ... would bring back a scattered flock, while playing the 'wolf's melody' 8lrls leave posies (each with something to show which posy belongs to which girl) in a big
made wolves attacking the flock freeze on the spot" (fl,»cypTy6aeB 2004).
115
114
 some of the performers as umereshki, i.e. "funereal", and the songs consist of rina, Domna TsaritsalQuttn Domna, the Zmeitaa/Dragoness, Chumen Enyo/
laconic musical phrases. The "singing around" one or more basic tones, occa- Plague-Stricken Enyo) with a distinctive mythical substratum. Elsewhere, I have
sionally ending with a variable/maZis, and the multiple repetitions account for tentatively called them "contact" songs. They are "praying" and "sacrificial" songs,
the "openness" of these ritual tunes - as a semantic expression of passage or articulating and singing the words without strain. This type of songs are found in
ill1' transition. Such vocal performance and sound is in tone with the character or other traditional Bulgarian rituals as well, and they are invariably connected
"ethos'VfiBoq of this ritual - of consecration and divination as well as a ritual with a specific act, dance steps (typically, often not in synchrony with the rhythm
for rain - if we look at it through the eyes of its performers in the nineteenth and of the melody), direction of movement, place of performance, etc.
• ,i •'• i
! i,i' twentieth centuries. The concept of the otherworld is found in the very act of Sound transcendence is a distinctive feature of women's ritual behaviour
singing while standing with face turned to the sun, as well as in the sacred acts and songs during the so-called "passage" or "transitional period" - from the
of going round the village, fields, graveyard, etc. while imitating flight, of going beginning of Lent to Ascension Day. The majority of them are antiphonic and
three times around a spring, house, well, cattle-pen, church with the so-called repetitive, blurring the boundaries that mark a beginning and an end, and create
! " V
slow hodeno how or "walked chain-dance", 5 of stepping over herbs and/or ill ing a sense of musical and spatial infinity. Such ritual songs are thought of as
! i," •
people, in the concept of the "transcendent" and other powers of the group. The mediative, effective, and penetrating. 6 The slow w o m e n ' s dance-songs of
songs have fixed texts (about Sveti Enyo/Saint Enyo, Sveta Marina/Saint Ma- "Kriashen (Christian) Tatars", performed outside the village on the day of the
Holy Trinity, are essentially similar: "Circular movement (with hands held),
l!i" copper bowl full of water, which is then left overnight outdoors, "under the stars" as they say moving with small steps while intoning, is in essence not a dance and song but
(in the yard, under a tree or under a rosebush). A key figure in the ritual is the so-called a vocal-choreographic complex containing the imprint of past sacrality. ... T h e
Enyova Bulya, a little girl, most often aged one or two (whose parents are alive; in some collective incantatory intonation that can be heard far away is characterized
villages, however, she must be an orphan), which the girls carry on their shoulders while by passive articulation, by an instrumental, metallic overtone ... also mani-
going round the village, the cattle pens, the fields, the graveyard, etc. She is dressed in bridal
costume, waving and flapping the oversize sleeves of her chemise while she is carried around. fested in the drawn-out vowel phonemes awa, ewey1 ... This type of strained
The girls stop at particular places (at a well, by the river) and ask her what the year will be like sound and its apotropaic character is typical of the most archaic calendar
(plentiful or poor), to which she replies only by nodding or shaking her head; and the girls ritual songs" (AjibMeeBa 1997: 188-189; e m p h a s i s a d d e d ) .
divine the future from her reactions and "answers". According to some old accounts, the girls A specific musical-stylistic "representation" of the sacred can be found in
would hold the child above a well, threatening to drop her into the well if she did not answer some diaphonic lazarka songs from the Ograzhden region (Southwestern Bul-
their question. In Southeastern Bulgaria, married women would lay out on the ground the
herbs they had gathered at dawn, and then the girl carrying the Enyova Bulya would step over garia) which are distinctive for their loud "shouting", their strained and pierc-
the herbs (thus ensuring, according to popular belief, that they had healing powers). After ing sound. The idea of intermediacy is vested in the ritual act itself, in the
completing their rounds (in some villages, on the morning after), they take the posies out of characteristics of the ritual space and the verbal mythemes. Until the mid-1950s,
the copper bowl one by one, singing improvised songs to each and thus divining what sort of
man each girl might marry. The ritual was accompanied by special songs and dances (for
details, see HeihcoBa 1992). Palm Sunday, or Lazarovden, i.e. Saint Lazarus' Day. On that day the lazarki go round the
5 village houses or another place, singing and dancing. In many villages, this ritual was per-
"The slow hodeno how to song in a circle ... carries the consecrating and sacred-
formed only in the presence of women; in Southwestern Bulgaria, on Golyama Lazaritsa the
I transcendent character of women's rites from the period after the decline of ecstatic cul-
lazarki sing at the grave of a young person who died recently (up to a year before the ritual)
tures. ... Following the Christianization of Bulgarian folk culture, it was gradually intro-
and dance with the children born during the year. The biblical legends about the resurrection
duced into most female calendar and marriage rites, but remains most typical of the rites
of Lazarus are "terra incognita" for the performers of this ritual; in science it is regarded as
around the spring cycle, associated with Lazaruvane, Velikden [Easter], Gergyovden [Saint
a relict of initiation rites (for a detailed description and analysis, see HeiikoBa 1986, 1988).
George's Day]..." - HnneBa 1980. 6
A similar ritual-musical ethos is contained in a lazarka dance-song from the village
Lazaruvane: a spring ritual performed by young and unmarried girls of marriageable °f Logodash (near Blagoevgrad), performed in the; past in the village square on Golyama
age, which was preserved in some Bulgarian villages until the mid-twentieth century. The Lazaritsa. The numerous repetitions of the melody represented a specific ritual content
lazarki (sing, lazarka, the performers of this ritual) are girls entering womanhood; a girl ("the girl-warrior") and accompanied a "peaceful" chain-dance while the newly married women
who has not taken part in this ritual does not have the right to marry. The ritual commences handed out ritual bread (pogacha) - it was believed that those who had not participated in this
with the first of the so-called lazarichki nedeli or "lazarka Sundays" - the nights before Part of the ritual could not go to umereshka, i.e. a commemoration or funeral. The song is
Sunday three to five weeks during Lent, ending with the so-called bash Lazaritsa, Golyama made up of more than 100 verses and tells the story of a girl who joins the king's army in her
Lazaritsa or "Lazaritsa proper, Big Lazaritsa" on the last Sunday before Easter; on these father's place. This story, which contains elements of the archaic kingly initiation rites in-
nights the lazarki meet at the graveyard, called obrochishte or "votive site" in many villages, volving ordeals, appears in different versions in different parts of Bulgaria (HeiiKOBa 1986).
after the first cockcrow; there they light a fire, sing lazarka songs and dance. Depending on 7
For more on the "E, U, I" vocal levels in Bulgarian diaphonic songs, see KaycpMaH ,•,.
the local tradition, Golyama Lazaritsa coincides with the day of Vrubno Vuzkresenie, i.e. 1998.

116 117
 the lazarki performed three songs in one and the same voice/tune at the grave- names... At the same level, the otherworld is represented in the instrumental
yard at night during Lent (during the so-called lazarichki nedeli). They sang sound - not as an objectified "reversed" content of worlds but as its musical
them standing on the threshold of the church and facing east. The first song symbol. One example here is the musical-instrumental "leading away" of the
contains the storyline of transportation of souls across a bridge, representing sacrificial animal in the Strandja panagyr (see chapter "Perke"), in which the
the concept of passage/transcendence and of the existence of an intermediate sacrificial ritual is accompanied by a strictly fixed bagpipe melody. Irrespec-
dimension/state after d e a t h (HeHKOBa 1986, 1988): "The dancing and sing- tive of whether it sounds like a personification of a saint/deity, playing - as an
ing of the lazarki around the fire in the graveyard [after singing the three songs enthusiasmatic mediative contact - similarly to singing, becomes part of the
mentioned a b o v e ] . . . is reminiscent of the morning dance around a fire lit near a performance of rituals, while instrumental melodies become a synonym of the
dead person in Romania, known as zarole. ... The Lazaruvane, which is based ongoing ritual act. 9
on a ritual with a commemorative function ... constitutes initiation into death, The musical-folklore and ritual heritage of the Bulgarians is the product of
into sacrifice which was performed at Easter. It is part of a large cycle of spring a long ethno-cultural historical synthesis and itdefinitely contains ancient Bulgar
rites dedicated to the dead ... culminating and ending on Ascension Day" elements as well. As a way of sound production and construction, as an es-
(KaytbiviaH J\. 1982: 18). sence, structure and concepts of musical instruments, as a vocal musical phra-
The transcendent and probably "transporting" function of these lazarka seology based on a system of scales (moduses), i.e. in its present sound and
voices is also contained in the songs performed at the grave of a young person "form", the Bulgarian vocal and instrumental folk style is the product of a con-
up to a year after his or her death by the lazarka group on the day of Golyama sciousness which does not contain any traces of the "order" of shamans. Also
Lazaritsa. These rituals and ritual songs were not accompanied by any soul emblematic in this respect are the differences between the tupan and the sha-
journey. The behaviour of the women's groups and men's bands that symbolizes man's drum, which originated in entirely different historical epochs and have
transcendence (including in the form of "flight" - as in the case of the Enyova entirely different ethno-cultural histories:
Bulya flapping the shirtsleeves of her chemise, or the nestinari) cannot even be
compared to two of the most specific features of shamanhood: the departure of • Unlike the Bulgarian tupan, the shaman's drum is a single-headed skin drum de-
the soul from the body and the soul journey in the Upper and L o w e r World. corated with images and ornamental objects; all shaman drums have a handle.
• The rules and concepts associated with the making and maintenance of sha-
A m o n g the Bulgarians, the idea of passage or transcendence appears in a
man's drums are foreign to the Balkans; so far there is no evidence whatsoever that they
different ritual situation and intonation form. The songs of the ritual groups were known to the ancient Bulgars and Thracians.
have a constant and repetitive melodic structure as well as a strictly defined • The close relationship between shamans and their drums is not typical of the tu-
time and place of performance, which is a "law". In her above-quoted account pan and the tupan-player, including in the present-day Greek territories.
of "Kriashen Tatars", Almeeva (AjibivieeBa 1997: 188) a d d s t h a t "elderly • The Siberian peoples have men's and women's shaman drums, a distinction
p e r f o r m e r s refuse to sing the drawn-out dance- and other calendar-songs, which is not found in the Bulgarian tradition of instrumental folklore.
knowing that because of their advanced age they will be unable to reproduce the • Unlike the style of performance on the Balkans in general and of the Bulgarians
specific timbre of the sound-ideal [emphasis added]". The similarities in the in particular, there are no constant rhythmic stereotypes in the performance of shamans.
musical thinking and vocal style of ritual songs of the Bulgarians and "Tatars" Whereas the Bulgarian instrumental style is characterized by the observance of specific
stem from the similar ethno-cultural context and historical characteristics. 8 rhythmic patterns, the concept of such necessity, importance and role of rhythm is not
In folk tradition, the unity and synchrony of elements like music, word/ found in shamanhood. This is an especially important difference in the rituals and rel-
evant musical tradition of the shamanic unstratified Siberian peoples, theological com-
verses, and dance are associated with the concept that they function precisely as
munities, and "classical" agricultural societies.
one in rituals - with their specific structural-intonational form and modus/scale,
verbal contents and movements. In the case of the Bulgarians, the constancy and One reliable indicator of ethno-cultural identity in the Bulgarian, ancient
specific style of this behaviour is also preserved in the process of their trans- Bulgar or any other community, is the ritual system as a form of faith-behaviour
mission from generation to generation - based on the belief that the voice/melody (whose precepts are followed, even if only "by tradition", to this very day) and
is a norm whose observance determines the successful performance of rituals, its sound in ritual space. Musical folk traditions are one of the faces of any
the future crop, the length of people's lives, the benevolence of the God of many community. As part of the folklore of a particular people, shamanhood, too,

8 9
According to A. Trofimov (A. A. TpodpnMOB 1993b: 187), "Kriashen Tatars is the For more on the functions and essence of instrumental performances, see OOJI B.,
name of an old Chuvash population in the Volga Region." HeflKOBa P. 2000, Part Two.

118 119
 cally and functionally similar elements among different societies as evidence of
preserves the latter's specific spiritual and musical-expressive features. The
the "existence of shamanism" indicates a fondness for the term rather than seri-
images on shaman drums, the concepts associated with them, the style of per-
ous research efforts and capacity to peel back the layers of memory. T h e latter
formance and, generally, the "personal" meaning attributed to the drum, sym-
are easily "recognized" only by choreographers looking for strong "folkloric"
bolize the very essence of shamans and shamanhood, their knowledge and pow-
sensations on stage, a n d b y s o m e a r m c h a i r scholars. 1 1 U s i n g the t e r m
ers. As noted earlier, shamans are required to know the mytho-narratives, songs,
"shamanhood" or "shamanism" without real evidence of its actual existence is
spells, incantations, etc. - that is, the stock of the folk music and tradition - of
an unjustified manipulation. Even Eliade who, to quote M . Hoppal (2000),
their people. Thus, shamans themselves focus and emanate their communi-
"never saw a living shaman and did no field work of this kind", repeatedly
ty's conceptions of the universe - through speech, "music", gestures... To put
warns that "the existence of one or more shamanic elements in anTndo-Euro-
it otherwise, the shaman is expected to perform a n u m b e r of key social and
pean religion is not enough to assume t h a t . . . it had a shamanic structure" (EjiHajj;e
ritual functions which, in stratified (ancient and later) agricultural socie-
1996: 408; 19; 43; 458).
ties, are assigned to and performed by the calendar-based ritual system
and ritual groups (female or male). I believe this is the fundamental principle
encapsulating the essence and uniqueness of the shamanhood phenomenon in its The implicit assumption throughout this book is that similar animistic, mytho-
"classical" form. I completely agree with Hultkranz that shamanhood is "a typi- logical and other ideas can be articulated, sung and recreated at different
cal phenomenon of hunting cultures in general ... developed around the sha- worldview and musical levels - among different peoples and in different types
man" (Hultkranz 1973: 36; 1984: 32; emphasis added). The evolution from the of rituals. One can find in the expressive systems of folk traditions things that
individual figure of the shaman with his or her unpredictable psychosomatic are similar in form but different in ethno-cultural content. Sometimes the trans-
behaviour and soul journey to the "canonized" behaviour of the ritual group that continental conceptual and ritual similarity of certain elements is a good basis
:,' consecrates space by walking, singing, playing a particular musical instrument for analysis of how they acquired their unique role and functions in a particular
and/or dancing, the evolution from object to non-object, from visible enactment community. This is part of the question concerning the preservation and gradual
•j|..'- of a concept or vision to its "invisible", not physical but symbolic representa- "transposition" of archaic prototypes in traditional memory. They are contained
"••• I' 'i • • tion, from the conception underlying the shaman's drum to the conception un- not only in petrified and archaic forms, but also in the m o v e m e n t of living
derlying the melody, rhythm and ethos of scales on the Balkans (which have cultures. As noted earlier, coincidence of faith-rites and official state religion
••i
deep theological and doctrinal roots, as attested also by written sources), is is not found as a synchronic phenomenon in them, including on the territories
I •• •i •
absent in classical shamanic communities. Total disregard of this factor is the inhabited by ancient Bulgars/Bolgars and contemporary Bulgarians...
] main "stumbling block" for Bulgarian researchers who "discover" evidence The social and political fate of the ancient states of the Bulgars is not a
and relicts of shamans in a non-shamanic (contemporary and ancient, Bulgar prime concern of ethnologists. The historiographic evidence used below is de-
and Thracian) social and ritual context that represents an entirely different ideo- signed only to help us elucidate presumable levels of their culture as faith-
logical level. 10 behaviour.12 Before I address this question, I would like to remind readers of a
The ethno-cultural memory and worldview of sedentary Bulgarian farmers basic rule which I hope has become clear by now: "CLASSICAL" SHAMANHOOD IS
require another type of ideology and ritual system; that is why in their tradi- NOT AN IDEOLOGY OF STATES. In itself, jt is obviously an archaic, extremely resil-
tion there is no figure that has the specific features distinguishing shamans: the ient folkloric phenomenon which is found in societies without "deep social
specific form of initiation, contents and functions of ritual accessories, sound- differentiation" (Ojiex 2001: 27) or in societies organized as chiefdoms (such
expressive language, psychosomatic behaviour, etc. The definition of typologi- as, for example, the Mongol Empire). The next .social step "upwards", i.e. to-

10
For example: "A number of elements typical of the shamanic ritual can be found in 11
"The representations of shamanic ecstasy which we find in the Ancient Greek, Thracian
the acts of the rusalii, (kalushari), especially in those connected with magic healing (sei- and, generally [?], Balkan mythological and folkloric material ... it is easy to recognize [?]
zures, incantations, dances, accessories, etc.)" - OBHapoB 1997: 25-26; 73. Both the rusalii that a particular motif has originated from a shamanic structure ... underlying primarily ec-
and the kalushari are men's ritual groups with a musician, with specific ritual dances per- st
asy and, less so, enthusiasm" - BoraaHOB 1999: 147-158.
formed to instrumental melodies in a strictly fixed order and on command. It is,believed that 12
For more on history as "learning about the behaviour" and the idea of statehood of the
the kalushari can heal the so-called rusalska bolest/illness; the ritual is fixed in time - it is Bulgarians, manifested as "constant occurrence and return", as a "synthesis of behaviours
performed only at the beginning of June, and follows a strictly defined procedure. The author '=cultures)" through which a particular territory becomes "a country, i.e. a cultural-histori-
obviously does not make a difference between rusalii and kalushari and lacks field knowl- cal space", see OOJI AJI. 2000: 220-222.
edge in this sphere.
121
120
 wards statehood, preconditions and requires another type of ideological forms - 3jiaTapcKH 1994: 100); little is known about the period before that. Great
and ritual system. It is probably recognition of the need of the latter that drove Bulgaria is also known as Kubrat's Bulgaria, n a m e d after Khan Kubrat (c. 584-
the Mongol rulers to turn to L a m a i s m in the thirteenth century, and later, after 642), who overthrew dependence on the western Turkic peoples and succeeded
their invasions to the west, to Islam. in uniting the Azov and ante-Caucasus Bulgar clans. This formation was located
In its various stages of existence, the ancient Bulgar state was built by one in the lands between the Caucasus and the Dnieper River- (in the region of the
main ruling centre. The problem of the ethno-cultural consolidation of a hetero- Sea of Azov and along the Northern Black Sea coast, including the Taman Pen-
geneous formation (containing other ethnic, non-Bulgar components), of its con- insula); significant territories to the east, north and west of the Sea of A z o v
stant "materialization" and maintenance as a state was a central problem upon were under the control of the Bulgars in this period (seventh century). T h e
every successive territorial transposition of the Bulgars. 1 3 In chronological or- Geography of the Armenian Anania Shirakatsi (Ananias of Sirak) from the sec-
der, the territories which the Bulgars migrated to and conquered are Northwest- ond half of the seventh century m e n t i o n s the n a m e Bulgar/Bulkar/Blkar
ern Pamir and Hindu Kush, the region of the Northern Caucasus and the Sea of (3naTapcKH 1994: 103, with sources). Traces of this name (and of Balkh, the
Azov, the Volga Region and the adjacent lands to the east and west, and the capital of the Pamir-Hindu Kush Balkhara/Balgara) as well as of the ethno-
Balkan Peninsula. The roots of Bulgarian statehood and of the Bulgarian eco- cultural h e r i t a g e of the B u l g a r s are found in Balkaria in the C a u c a s u s
nomic model are sought by historians in the lands of ancient Baktria, where the ( E L J i r A P H T E 2000: 27).
Bulgars probably had "an established state-administrative structure" in the sec- Modern science has identified three main, diachronically manifested, ethno-
ond century A D (IlBeTKOB 1998: 150). "The place of the Bulgarians (regis- cultural heritages in the Northern Caucasus: ancient Caucasian (indigenous),
tered on the m a p of Central Asia as early as the first millennium B C ) is where Alanic, and Turkic (ancient Bulgars, Khazar, Kuman). According to Miziyev
Indian written sources mention the people called Bolkhi/Bolkhiki, Arab sources (1990, 1994), the ancient Bulgars in the Caucasus were successors of the
the land Balkhara and the state Bulgar, Sogdian sources Blgar, and Tajik sources Scythians and the Huns, according t o Smirnov, of the Scythians and the Alans,
Palgar/Falgar. Judging from the Latin Anonymous Chronograph, this place while according to experts in Khazar history, the Khazars and the Bulgars were
had its centre in present-day Balkh, the ancient Baktria, in Northern Afghani- practically one and the same people speaking one and the same language. T h e
stan" ( E T > J i r A P H T E 2 0 0 0 : 7 ) . contemporary Balkar and Karachay are a substratum of indigenous Caucasian,
According to Armenian chroniclers and geographers, a mass of Bulgars Iranian, Turkic peoples, "one and the same ethnic community" with the same
1 1)1
ill settled in the region of the Caucasus around the third-fourth century. A n account language, w a y of life and customs (for details, see PaxaeB 1988). They are
ii by the Syrian Mar-Abasa-Kafin (third century), cited by Smirnov, suggests that "very close to the Danubian Bulgarians" anthropologically, while their lan-
ii Bulgars settled in this region earlier: " T h e Bulgars living north of the Caucasus guage is very close to that of the contemporary "Tatars" (more precisely, to that
invaded Armenia in 149-127 B C " (CMHPHOB 1951: 9, with References). The of the Kipchak sub-group - E y j i r a p n 1998: 37, with References). M a n y au-
permanent ethnic stabilization of the Bulgars probably began after they migrated thors share the opinion as to the Bulgar origins of the Balkar and their related
to the region north of the Caucasus. I want to remind the reader, however, that Karakachai, which is based on archaeological finds and facilities (including
such a thing as an invariable, static ethnic structure is non-existent in historical ancient Bulgar runic inscriptions), traces in traditional culture (such as felt ar^
reality. In the case of the Bulgarians too, both the ancient and the contemporary tides, elements of women's traditional costume and traditional food, the n a m e
" population is heterogeneous, being in a constant process of consolidation. In of the Supreme G o d - Teiri, unknown among the other Caucasian peoples),
ii I the period under review, one can hardly speak of the existence of ethnic, lin- place-names found in Danubian Bulgaria as well, preserved names of some
Nil guistic and racial homogeneity in the different state formations; it is also well- branches and tribal groups o f Bulgars, etc. (Miziyev 1994). Part of these finds
known that the ruling ethnic group (which gave the formation its name) was not were discovered in the ancient North Caucasian town of H u m a r a (on the right
always the largest one. Historiography provides evidence about the last and bank of the Kuban River), the largest military-political and cultural-economic
most powerful formation of the Bulgars before they migrated to the Danube centre of Caucasian Bulgars and the Khazar Khaganate. The constructions found
River region, recorded by Theophanes and Nicephorus as "Old, Great Bul- °n the site of the t o w n ( a s well as other archaeological sites), the skillfully cut
garia" (naXam . B o t ^ y a p i a T a t p v ea-civ n, \xejakr\/ psyaXri B o u ^ / a p i a and tight-fitting stone blocks in the foundations of buildings, indicate that the
ancient Bulgars were masters of stone architecture. "This skill of ancient Bul-
13 garians, reflected in the monuments of Balkaria and adjacent regions, has been
For more on statehood and state as forms of organization of society, on the process
ln
of evolution from the former to the latter, a process directly associated with the characteris- a quite full measure preserved at modern Balkarians, and especially in Cherek
tics of the social structure, law, ideology, writing system, economy, etc., see Ilopo>KaHOB canyon. M a y b e this is why other Balkarians call them 'hunachi malkarlila', that
' "ft 2000.

ill 122 123

m \
 Legend has it that Khan Kubrat bade his sons to stick together. Khan Kubrat's
is, Balkarian masons." Another specific feature of the material culture of the bidding probably attests to a consciousness about the importance of the unity of
Bulgars was the construction of frame dwellings of whole-tree logs (preserved territory and the form in which it could b e preserved and ruled: through cen-
among the Karachay) which is unknown, for example, in the Eastern Caucasus. tralized state power. This strategy obviously continued to be applied over the
There is written and archaeological evidence indicating a long-lasting Bulgar next centuries, including in Great Bulgaria (sixth-seventh centuries), as indi-
presence and self-consciousness in the Northern Caucasus, where "a large part cated by the political and ideological policies of the successive Bulgar rulers.
of the population continued to call themselves Bulgars" even after the disinte- In the seventh century, the state was torn apart by the Khazars, but over the next
iM
gration of Great Bulgaria (Miziyev 1994; MH3HeB 1998; Hcmopun KaGapduno- centuries the Bulgars succeeded in expanding its territory - in the Volga Region
EanKapuu14). and on the Balkans. The so-called Volga Bulgaria, with Bilyar and, later, Great
T h e evidence of a sedentary way of life, of agrarian livelihoods and crafts, Bolgar as its capital, was established in the lands of the ancient indigenous
of maintenance of an administrative and military system within a particular Volga peoples (Cheremis/Mari, Votyak/Udmurt, Mordvin, etc.) and survived
hierarchy, i.e. of long-lasting presence on a particular territory, attests to more under that n a m e until the thirteenth century. Its stratification, state, social and
than a constructive behaviour only. In the early Bulgar states, these factors re- military structure and hierarchy have been reconstructed from written and ar-
quired an adequate type of a family- and calendar-based ritual system which, chaeological sources, including ancient coins (/IeHHcoB 1959; BajieeBa 1983;
as is well-known, "best represents the peculiarities of the people's worldview, /JaBJieTiiiHH 1990; 3aKneB, Ky3bMHH, lOMaHflH 1 9 9 3 ; M n r p T a x o B ,
of its ethnic mentality" (XpymeBa 2001: 23). It is precisely in this respect that MyxaMaaeeBa 1995; HcxaKOB, H3MaHjioB 2001, etc.). The presence and cul-
there are fundamental differences b e t w e e n the traditions of the classical ture of the Volga Bulgars led to the development of agriculture, metallurgy and
shamanic Siberian and Middle Asian peoples, on the one hand, and the tradi- trade along the Volga River and in the direction of Central Asia, crafts, the art of
tions of the peoples now inhabiting the ancient Bulgarian territories, on the war, construction of defence facilities, irrigation and canal systems, cities and
other. O n e especially important peculiarity is the existence of a calendar-based other population centres, etc. In 922 A D Khan Almush adopted Islam as the
ritual system in the lands of the ancient Bulgarian state formations and their official state religion. Significant preconditions for that were the existing close
successors. The "archaic" (as Kuchmezov puts it) North Caucasian culture con- trade and political contacts with the East and with Middle Asia, and the pros-
tains an abundance of ritual poetry, calendar-based song cycles, mythical con- pect of securing military-political support from Baghdad and overthrowing the
cepts and legends, names of ancient pagan protectors and rites of worship, mu- dependence on the Khazars (which was achieved in the tenth century). The
sical instruments, the Nart Sagas (known to all Caucasian peoples), etc. In the adoption of Islam "reinforced feudal relations subjected and united the various
Caucasus, the concepts and acts regulating society and its transitions and pas- j local rulers (the feudal elite) under centralized state rule" (EpacjiaBCKHH 1997).
sages are "multiplied" in a calendar-based ritual system that is quite close to Scholars consider the Bulgar state in the Volga Region to have been a key factor
that preserved on the Balkans, where w e have a mysterial ritual passage of the for the consolidation of the various non-Bulgarian peoples during the Middle
group and an "ascendant" status of the individual in society leading to other Ages. Its historical contribution to the development of the local "national tradi-
rights and activities in the ritual sphere. The Balkar had many calendar rituals tions" is formulated in a similar way by generations of scholars in contempo-
devoted to ancient deities, and most of those rituals were preserved even after rary Chuvash and Tatar science (CMHPHOB A . I I . 195.1: 3; KoHmpaTteB 1991:
the adoption of Islam. Kuchmezov (KyHMe30B 2001: 66-79) has studied nu- 107; TpotpHMOB 1993; H y p n e B a 2001, MjibHHa 1997, OafopaxMaHOB 2000,
merous archaeological sites and rituals to learn more about the cultivation and K H 3 2001: 19, etc.). 15 Their conclusions are based on various archaeological
processing of farms crops in ancient times (for more on the Kuban or so-called finds as well as on "the Bulgarian lexical layers in the different languages and
"Black Bulgars", see ibid. p. 71), proceeding from the assumption that devel- the architectural monuments in mediaeval Russia" ( H y p n e B a 2001; HjibHHa
oped agriculture and "stable economic models" are found only among peoples 1997).
with established ruling structures and powerful military organization. Last but
not least, the musical folk tradition of the Caucasian peoples (including the
15
Balkar and.the Karachay) is specific, highly-developed and rich in genres, in- The official scientific view is that the main distinctive features of the Chuvash people
w
ere formed in Volga Bulgaria in the eighth-twelfth centuries, and that many elements of
cluding polyphonic ones, and it is one of the most interesting and remarkable
Chuvash material and spiritual culture come from "the old Bulgarian state" (KomtpaTbeB
phenomena of East European culture. 1995:241); that the Chuvash have preserved the oldest Bulgarian language (AuiMapnH 1902,
KaTaHOB 1920, EropoB B. E. 1971, OeqoTOB 1980, etc.; most recently, KomipaTbeB 2001;
14 ^ 3 2001). It is universally accepted that the Bulgars and the Bulgar heritage in the Volga
Ibid, for more on archaeological finds from the eighth century and later, on seven- Ke
gion and Northern Caucasus are of Turkic origin and Turkic ethno-cultural identity.
teenth-century inscriptions containing "unique Bulgarian-Balkarian language parallels", etc
125
124
 II.
feated by the Jurchen in alliance with the Tatars; the union was restored by
I'M
III Uniting many tribes in the Central Volga Region, the Bulgarian state played a not Khabul K h a n ' s great-grandson Temuchin, the future Genghiz Khan. "Chinese
III insignificant role in their ethnogenetic process. Without the history of the Volga Bulgars, historians introduced great confusion in the ethnonym Tatar." Until the twelfth
III
•••" one cannot write the history of the Kazan Tatars, the Chuvash, Mordvin, Mari, Udmurt century they regarded the Mongols as part of the Tatars (even though Genghiz
and Komi. ... The Volga Bulgars are the basis on which the Kazan Khanate was Khan and his followers called themselves Mongols); in the twelfth century they
' ' 'I, formed. (CMITOHOB A . n . 1951: 3) used this n a m e to refer to the entire population from the Great Wall of China to
1
«. ii The Chuvash people was formed in the period between the tenth and the thirteenth the taiga, whereas in the thirteenth century they viewed the Tatars as part of the
•H.| centuries on the basis of a union of Bulgarian and Suvar tribes ... and part of the Finno- Mongols; in the thirteenth century Tatars and Mongols became synonymous. In
i'< ' Ugric population. TheBulgaro-Chuvash are at its core. ( K H 3 2001: 19) the Mongol campaigns westwards the advance guard of the army was m a d e up
•iM- In 1236 Volga Bulgaria was conquered by the Mongols. It became a prov- of Tatars, and that is why the Mongol army came to be called Tatar. Some
i',1 ince of the Blue Horde founded in 1243 by Batu within the M o n g o l Empire. scholars think that at the beginning of the thirteenth century the Tatars were
Although it lost its political independence, the Bulgar population enjoyed a practically wiped out by the Mongols, who kept the ethnonym as a n a m e for any
'•i'l
iv:i significant degree of economic and ideological autonomy. T h e culture of this "defeated people" (including the Bulgarian people in the thirteenth century).
Mongol-ruled territory had enormous influence on the ideology and develop- M a n y ancient chroniclers regard the Tatars as Turks, and it is indeed true
ment of the Blue Horde itself, which reached its height in the first half of the that many of the conquered Turkic peoples adopted this name. In the thirteenth
fourteenth century (OaxpyTflHHOB 1984; r^aBJieTiiiHH 1990; Ka3aK0B 1997). century again, Tatars became an ethnonym for the entire population of the Golden
In the thirteenth century, the newly founded Ulus of Jochi/Blue Horde did not Horde; in Chinese historiography it is synonymous with "barbarians" ( O a r a p a x -
have a universally accepted official religion. ... Islam was adopted for a number of MaHOB 2000: 92-94; HcxaxoB, HsMaiijiOB 2001: 40-41, 50; E y j i r a p n 1998:
reasons: the desire of the Muslims themselves to restore the caliphate, secondly ... the 10; CMHPHOB A . I I . 1946). "In the Russian Empire the n a m e Tatar was used
Mongol elite, owing to the weakness of its own religious traditions, adopted Islam for for peoples of different origins, mostly Turkic (Volga, Crimean, Astrakhan, Cau-
political reasons - in order to succeed in preserving the conquered territories which had casian, Siberian, Altaic and other Tatars). T h e ethnonym is also used widely i n
different ethnic components. ... A. Khalikov notes that "part of the Mongol elite, ethnic and place-names of many Asian peoples" (EymaKOB). There is no suffi-
however, remained pagan. Unlike the Bulgars, who had long been integrated into the ciently reliable evidence about the language and culture of the ancient Tatars in
urban type of culture, theconquerors were ... nomads ... pagan-shamanists. ... Islam the period between the sixth and eighth centuries; neither is there consensus on
was adopted by a small part of the Mongols who had changed to a settled way of life." ^ their ethnic origin and identity (Mongol or Turkic), or "a reliable and univer-
... After they lost their independence in 1236, the Volga Bulgars, who saw the Mongol j sally accepted etymology of the e t h n o n y m " (HcxaKOB, H3MaHJioB 2001: 50;
invasions as a sign of the "Wrath of Allah", became even more religious. ... Their ByjirapH 1998: 11-12; EymaKOB).
religiosity, together with the privileges granted to them, played a crucial role in the The new Kazan period of the Volga Bulgars began at the beginning of the
Islamization of the Golden Horde and the spread of Sufism... (TapHnoB; emphasis fifteenth century. The old northern fortress of Volga Bulgaria, Kazan (founded,
added) according to archaeological e v i d e n c e , in the tenth-eleventh c e n t u r i e s -
As a result of the Mongol invasion, the Volga Bulgars and their territory OaxpyTflHHOB 1993) attracted the refugees fleeing from the successive devas-
eventually came to be known by another name - T a t a r , as they were first Called tating Mongol campaign towards the town of Bolgar in the fourteenth century,
by the Mongols and, after the second half of the fifteenth century, by the Rus- and came to be known also as Bolgar al-Jadid (the N e w Bolgar - XajiHJi 2002:
sians as well (the information below is from E y n r a p H 1998: 12; EymaKOB, H). The Kazan Khanate inherited the traditions of Volga Bulgaria ( H j i t r o i a
with References). The name Tatar is found in Turkic runic inscriptions (from 1997: 216; CaHnameBa 2001: 484-490); in the mid-fifteenth century (1552) it
732) from the time of the second Turkic Khaganate, and later, in the eighth and was defeated by the Principality of Moscow, and the tsar added to his title the
ninth centuries, in Uighur and Chinese sources. In the eighth century the Tatars name of the conquered land ("Tsar of Bulgaria, Tsar of Kazan"), which Russian
inhabited the northeastern part of present-day Mongolia and, after the ninth cen- tsars bore until 1917 (XajiHJi 2 0 0 2 : 1 2 ; ilpyjuiHHa 2003: 57, with References).
tury, the territory of what is now East Turkestan. Khotan-Sakh documents from During the reign of Peter the Great all Muslim peoples came to be called
the ninth-tenth centuries identify the Tatars as belonging to the Tokuz-Oguz and Tatars. "The residents of Kazan and the Kazan area invariably called them-
as Turkic speakers. According to Chinese chronicles, the Tatar (Dada, Datan selves Bulgars until the Soviet October Revolution" (XajiHJi 2 0 0 2 : 1 2 ; 2.3). At
in Chinese) tribe inhabited the upper and middle reaches of the A m u r River in the beginning of the twentieth century, the Bolshevik regime created the present-
the tenth-eleventh centuries. At the beginning of the twelfth century, Khabul l y Chuvashia and Tatarstan on the territory of the former Volga Bulgaria (in-
K h a n united the Mongol tribes along the Amur River, which in 1161 were de-
127

126
lull.
 eluding the Kazan Khanate). The two republics were founded by a decree of With the spread of Islam (Sufism) in Volga Bulgaria, schools were opened
Lenin (dated 27 May 1920), implemented personally by Stalin after 1921. The and the Koran and various theological treatises began to be studied. Bulgars
communist regime actually continued the Russian imperial policy, subjecting began using the Arabic alphabet, which replaced the old runic, according to the
the so-called "Bulgarists" to cruel repressions ( E y n r a p H 1998: 136; XajiHJi universally accepted view, script. "The Azov and Black Sea Bulgars wrote on
2002: 28). 16 Communist propaganda asserted that "Volga and Crimean Tatars wax-coated wooden tablets, whereas the Volga Bulgars [in the ninth-tenth cen-
had c o m e to Europe well-nigh from Mongolia as invaders, and this inevitably turies] wrote on processed animal skin ... and paper imported from Central
gave rise to anti-Tatar sentiments" (EymaKOB). T h e n a m e remains controver- Asia" (MncpTaxoB 2004: JieKiiHfl 13 - /TyxoBHafl KyjibTypa BOJDKCKHX
sial in contemporary Tatarstan tothis very day. Tatars and Chuvash still remem- Byjirap). According to Klyashtorny (KJIJIHITOPHBIH 2005: 102), "the wide-
ber that they are descendants also of the Volga Bulgars (whom they call Bolgars, spread use of the East European variant of the ancient Turkic runic script along
Bulgars), whereas the Chuvash themselves remember that they are descendants the Volga River, from the Northern Caucasus to the River Danube Valley, is due
of the Volga Bulgars who were not Islamized in the tenth century. Even though precisely the Bulgars". In other words, on that basis they were entirely ready to
contemporary Tatars have nothing in c o m m o n either With the "Ghengizars" or adopt the Arabic alphabet and "develop a higher written culture of their o w n "
with the ancient Tatars, the name Tatar is now used as an ethnonym in official (EapneB 1997). Following the example of Muslim literature and Arab-Persian
and scientific literature. For many contemporary Tatars it is also a means of the authors, the Bulgars began creating religious-didactic, vocal and instrumental
now much-desired political dissociation from the "Russian Federation. works. This was also determined by the nature of Sufism, in, whose rituals
T h e issue of the origins and ethnic identity of the Tatars in contemporary music and the rhythm of physical movements have great religious meaning
Turkestan is discussed in many scientific publications, but it is not a subject of (Cann;auieBa 2 0 0 1 : 4 8 4 ; My'xaMeTiiiHH 2001: 429). Eventually, a new type of
this book. Here the historical facts about the territory under review and its urban musical culture, including a court musical culture, w a s formed; it used
spiritual contents are of great importance to our subject. It is impossible to flute-like, reed, harp-like, percussion and other instruments "constituting the
study any spiritual culture without knowing how names relate to ethno-cultural specificity of Turkic culture in its pre-Islamic period and its contact with the
contents, for it is well-known that "the'history of an ethnonym is not always a Iranian-speaking peoples of Middle Asia". The connection of "the traditional
history of the relevant ethnic group". 1 7 The history of the n a m e "Tatar" is an folklore of the Tatars with China and early B u d d h i s m " is manifested also in the
example of the metamorphosis of an ethnic self-designation into an exohym and, musical thinking, pentatonic scales, musical organology and its specific names
eventually, into a new ethnonym. If taken in its authentic, original' form and among the "Turko-Bulgars" even before the adoption of Islam (MaicapoB 1997:
meaning, Tatar as a noun and adjective definitely implies shamanhood as found 206-207). The monodic style of performance, which reached its culmination in
in many regions of Asia and among all Mongol peoples. However, the existing the period of the Kazan Khanate, was formed and asserted in urban musical life.
written evidence, archaeological finds and, generally, all studies on the Volga This process was closely connected with the theological chanting of texts from
Bulgars, indicate that they had another type of social-political structure and the Koran, based on metro-rhythmic formulas and the inherited pentatonic b a -
spiritual world. In the context of the subject of this book, here w e need to look sis, on gradual smooth melodic movement, etc. T h e flowering of professional
at two main spheres in which the specificity of ancient Bulgar culture and ideol- music-making and composition and of urban spiritual culture during the Middle
ogy was preserved and manifested: the urban culture formed after the adoption Ages, when the normative literary language was also formed, 1 8 is also re-
of Islam, and the traditional folk ritual system which has preserved the dis- corded in written monuments from this period. It is viewed as a "new interpre-
tinctive features of the ancient faith-behaviour. tation of the early forms of urban musical culture of the Muslim Bulgars" and as
proof of "the resilience of the deep folk-vocal traditions" (CaMflameBa 1997:
191, 192).

16
For more on the brutal repressions committed-by the Bolshevik regime against Volga The spread of Islam had various effects on traditional culture in the lands
Bulgars, see .HpyjuiHiia 2003. For more on the contemporary Bulgarian National Congress of Volga Bulgaria. One problem that has been studied actively in recent years is
in the city of Kazan, on its creation, official status, organization, statutes, political and ideo- the so-called "Islamic-pagan syncretism". There are some accounts of "unrigh-
logical positions, main activities and goals, etc., see http://bolgar.by.ru/bnk.htm
17
"By virtue of historical circumstances, the ethnonym of one people may become a
name of another people.... The Finnish name for the Swedish Varangians, Ruotsi, became the 18
name of Kievan Rus in which the Varangians were the elite of the prince's guards.... After the The earliest extant monument of the ancient Bulgarian literary language is Kul Gali's
disintegration of the state, the name Rus spread and was preserved for the contemporary Poem "Kissa-i Yusuf' ("Legend of Yusuf'); we also know from written sources of the exist-
e
m Russians and other peoples" (EymaKOB, with References). nce of a History of Bulgaria from the thirteenth century (Byjirapn 1998: 60).

128 129
 teous" behaviour on the part of the khans themselves in the period after the lam (adopted as the official religion by the Volga Bulgars in the tenth century) is
official adoption of the new religion. It is commonly known that orthodox Islam also more tangible among them, and can be found in some of their concepts,
was confined primarily to the cities and the feudal elite, while the rural and names of deities and elements of rituals, etc. These regions, some villages in
urban c o m m o n population practised for centuries folk Islam (a combination of southern Chuvashia and the traditional culture of the Kriashen Tatars (who
Islamic postulates, and folk concepts and customs - CaHflaineBa 1997: 190; have not fallen "under the strong equalizing influence of Islam in the last few
MyxaMexiUHH 2001: 428). Despite all efforts, the Islamic clergy failed to up- centuries" - KoHmpaTbeB 1991) have preserved specific musical-performance
root Tengriism and its traces in family and calendar rites in the Volga Region styles and folkloric material which as a whole attest to the continuity and
(ypa3MaHOBa 2001: 398). Even later, in the twentieth century, when collectiv- impulses of a common ancient spiritual system.19
ization of private property and agriculture (conducted by the Bolshevik regime) Between 1958 and 1979, several Hungarian expeditions worked in Finno-
destroyed the foundations and mores of the traditional agricultural community, Ugric, Tatar and Chuvash villages. The materials from these expeditions have
"traditional rites accompanied with songs" continued to be practised in Kriashen been published in collections (Vikar, Bereczki 1971; 1979; 1989) and in Vikar's
Tatar villages until the 1960s (AjibMeeBa 1997: 187-188). A c c o r d i n g to regional studies (1996,1998) on Tatar folksongs and music in the Volga-Kama
Saidasheva (CaHjiauieBa 1997:190), "the agrarian rites of the peoples of Volga region. During their difficult and extensive fieldwork, the researchers found an
Bulgaria and their musical culture" have been preserved precisely a m o n g the ancient calendar-based ritual system, a developed and well-preserved musical
Kriashen Tatars and the Chuvash; according to A. P. Smirnov (A. I I . CMHPHOB tradition, a wide range of musical instruments (string, wind, percussion in-
1946), thelargest number of elements of ancient Bulgar culture have been pre- struments) and instrumental melodies, etc. During a field study on the local
served among the Chuvash and the Cheremis/Mari. ritual-musical tradition in August-September 2 0 0 2 , 1 had the chance to see for
In the sixteenth century, Russian colonial policy began imposing Christian- myself that an ancient ritual-musical substratum has been preservedin the Volga
ity in the Volga Region, but this did not eliminate the pagan elements in tradi- Region. On the territory of present-day Chuvashia and Tatarstan, there are still
tional culture. The Christianized Tatars (the majority of them were descendants villages which have not converted to Christianity or Islam and have preserved
of those who had not converted to Islam in the tenth century) preserved the their old beliefs to this very day. During my field study in the region, I was
specific traits of their ritual vocal system with predominant anhemitonic scales fortunate to find that what had been described several decades earlier was still
and polyphonic singing (pentatonic scales with descending melodic lines, a well-preserved, as well as that songs with different functions are still remem-
quantitative principle of musical-verse organization, etc. - CaHflameBa 2001: bered and sung at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Here, however, I
4 8 4 , 4 9 2 ) . Two centuries after the late conversion of the Chuvash to Christian- have a very serious point to make about the relative nature of the so-called
ity (in 1723), their traditional culture was still "conserved", so to speak. The "archaic traits" and their ethnic origin. The contemporary ethno-cultural iden-
Chuvash preserved their rich calendar-based ritual system, based on the an- tity and origin of the Volga Region peoples is multi-layered and difficult to
"ill
cient Chuvash lunar-solar calendar and different song cycles in- a specific re- analyze. For centuries this territory was a buffer of different migration and ideo-
I I
ill gional form, almost until the end of the twentieth century (KoHjjpaTbeB 2001; logical waves, an object of different political and economic ambitions, and a
K t 1 3 2001; Vikar, Bereczki 1979; Vikar 1996,1998). "The Chuvash musical- centre of cultures of different origins. The processes of contact a n d ethno-cul-
poetic system, a legacy of a highly developed culture, has distinctive, crystal- tural synthesis were especially dynamic in the tenth-thirteenth centuries, but the
il... lized structures, and that is why it looks highly developed and historically more Mongol-Tatar invasion changed their intensity and direction in the next centu-
a d v a n c e d . . . . One of the most distinctive features of Chuvash music is its highly ries (KoHflpaTbeB 1991: 107). Although it was not crucial, here w e must bear
developed pentatonic mode system." The conservation of the specific Chuvash m mind also the influence of the Slavs from the fifteenth century onwards, who
"musical dialect" is explained by the late conversion to Christianity as well as moved into the Volga Region after the defeat of the Kazan Khanate. In other
by the absence of a unified economic and cultural centre for centuries, contrary
to the case of the Tatars (KoHflpaTbeB 2001a: 51-53, 58, 60). M o r e than two
19
hundred deities are known from Chuvash mytho-narratives and rites to this very The contemporary Chuvash scientific view is that the Chuvash have preserved the
day, the majority of them by their old pagan names ( K 4 3 2001: 20). The major- oldest Bulgarian language and that the main traits of the Chuvash (Turkic-speaking) people
w
ere formed in Volga Bulgaria in the eighth-twelfth centuries; a number of elements in Chuvash
ity of the officially Christianized Chuvash have preserved their old traditional
^aterial and spiritual culture are also thought to come from the ancient Bulgarian state; the
beliefs to this day, while those resettled in compact groups in some regions of ^nuvash language "belongs to the Turkic group of the Altaic language family and is the only
I Jill southern Tatarstan (Nurlat, Cheremshan, Aksubay, Almetyevsk) still call them- "ving language of the Bulgar-Khazar branch" (AuiMapHH 1902; KaTanoB 1920; EropoB
l9
'"ill selves "non-Christianized" or "non-baptized" Chuvash. The influence of Is- 7l; OeaoTOB 1980, etc.; KoHjipaTbeB 1995: 241; 2001a: 47; AwpeeB 2001: 486-487,
w
'th References).

130 131
iii"'.JIl
 I
I
• words, owing to the centuries-long spiritual and anthropological synthesis, the duction, musical organization and form) has nothing in c o m m o n with the spe-
II designation of a population today as "purely" Finno-Ugric, Chuvash, Tatar or cific performance of shamanic rituals or with the vocal traditions of shamanic
Bulgarian is largely relative, therefore it is more reasonable to study it above peoples. The improvised and often untempered sound intoning that is so typi-
all as a form of self-consciousness. T h e long mutual influences and interactions cal of the latter cannot be heard among the population of contemporary Tatarstan
between material and ritual-musical traditions, especially in the so-called "con- and Chuvashia, including among the descendants of the ancient Finno-Ugrians. 22
tact zones" (in some regions of Tatarstan, in the northern Chuvash territories
where Mari and Chuvash have been living together for centuries, etc.), have
produced an interesting and specific monolithic culture. T h e Tatar, Chuvash T h e question of the existence or non-existence of inherited shamanic fea-
and Finno-Ugric peoples have not only distinctive but also c o m m o n musical- tures is inevitably related to the question of the origin and ethnic identity of
stylistic features which m a k e the region a specific "musical community". The the ancient Bulgars, a highly controversial and much-debated subject in present-
preservation and manifestation of similar spiritual and material elements among day Bulgaria. In Russia, Chuvashia and Tatarstan, however, the question of the
the Mari, Mordvin, Udmurt and especially among the Chuvash and Tatars (for ethnic origin of the ancestors has been resolved easily, as the overwhelming
,' I
1
I examples and Balkar parallels, see Ypa3MaH0Ba 2001: 50, 67) is based on majority of scholars are of the opinion that the ancient Bulgars and the peoples
their common origins and on the existence of a "common and ancient ethnogenetic descended from them are Turkic in origin. S o m e Tatar publications on Volga
1
I substratum" (KoHmpaTbeB 1991: 107). Generally, the latest scientific tenden- Bulgaria point out that "the ethnogenesis of the Bulgars differs from that of the
cies view the oral musical tradition and musical-poetic systems in the Volga majority of Turks" (living in Kazakhstan, Middle Asia and Southern Siberia)
1 1 and Ural regions as belonging to " o n e and the same musical civilization" because of their early split-away from the latter ( H y p n e B a 2001: 149). T h e
(KoHjjpaTbeB 2001b: 83). 20 Whilst this view may be based on the hypothesis Bulgars are regarded as the first "Turkic-speaking component" in the formation
that the ancient Turks originated precisely in this region (KoHmpaTbeB 1980: of the Karachay-Balkar people (XomxoKeB, TeoprHeB 1994: 174, 189).
276, with References; explicitly in MH3HeB 1990, with References), 2 1 what is Other scholars support the thesis of the Scytho-Sarmatian ethno-cultural
more important is that the studies of ethnologists and ethnomusicologists have identity and origin of the Bulgars. On the basis of archaeological and anthropo-
identified a successive stage of ethno-cultural synthesis in these territories. logical research on the territory of Volga Bulgaria and the Northern Caucasus,
B a s e d on the existing evidence, the following important points need to be in the mid-twentieth century Smirnov argued that the Sarmatians had moved into
made. The state of the folk traditions (which have inherited ancient Bulgar traits the Volga Region at an early stage in history, that the Bulgars belonged to the
as well) reviewed here, their stylistic and musical-genre specificity, demon- Manic tribes, and that the region h a d been Tiirkicized in several waves (liter-
strate fundamental differences from shamanic societies. T h e system of calen- ally "mass penetration of Turkic elements") in the period of the Khazar Khaganate
dar-based rituals including an abundance of song cycles (which is not found (sixth-ninth centuries) andTater, as a result of Volga Bulgaria's well-developed
among the Siberian peoples - although they, too, have something like song cycles, trade and political relations with Central Asia and the Arab Caliphate. Accord-
the latter are very few), which has been preserved, practised and described for ing to Smirnov, the Mongol conquerors (who, as a rule, were nomadic) brought
centuries, does not contain substrate elements indicating that shamanhood ever about only insignificant demographic changes in the Volga Region, therefore
existed here. The sound of musical-folk genres (the specific way of sound pro- one cannot speak of a change of population or culture in Volga Bulgaria. Finds
from later times demonstrate a continuity of old building traditions, crafts, an
absence of Mongoloid features among this European-looking population, etc.
20 (CMHPHOB 1946,1951). The thesis of the Scytho-Sarmatian ethno-cultural iden-
For more on the similarities in the ritual songs and traditional cultures (material and
tity and origin of the Bulgars is also supported by contemporary scholars, in-
spiritual) of the Finno-Ugrians, Chuvash and Tatars, see KoimpaTbeB 1993; 1995; 1997;
2001b; HaraeBa et al. 1997; UlyTOBa 2001; Ypa3MaHOBa 2001; PaMa3aHOBa 2001; cluding with regard to-the Chuvash people.
XpymeBa 2001; Teopra 2001; Mnnnep T. Op. 2001. The firm belief of Tatar and many other scholars in the Turkic origin and
21
According to ethnomusicologists, the musical tradition of the Cheremis/Mari and identity of the ancient Bulgars has led to systematic research on the similarities
the Votyak/Udmurt developed under Turkic influence because of its long contact with these between the Karachay, Balkar, Chuvash, and Volga Tatars, on the one hand, and
peoples (Vikar, Bereczki 197k32; 1989: 10; 14-15). Vikar and Bereczki regard the Bulgars,
the Tiirks, on the other. It is another matter whether such views are accepted or
too, as being of Turkic origin: "In about the middle of the eighth century, a highly civilized
nation came to the vicinity of the Permic peoples, named the Bulgar-Turks, who established
22
a strong empire in the Volga-Kama region. Votyak/Udmurt words borrowed from the Bulgar- Individual examples (in Chuvash singing) of improvised, untempered pitches are found,
1
1 Turks ... covered many fields of life, most of them related with agriculture and weaving of entirely predictably, only in "recitative funeral laments ... in which the musical form is not
spinning" (Vikar, Bereczki 1989:14). °ased on a musical-proper organizing principle" (Komi.paTi.eB 2001a: 52-53).

132 133

L
 not by contemporary Bulgarian science. T h e Bulgarian-Turkic similarities, es- lead the nobles to the cave of the ancestors, where they offered sacrifices ...
tablished at different levels, including at the level of language, remain open to and in the fifth month they sacrificed horses and rams to Tengri [emphasis added]".
further research and interpretation. What is important for the subject under re- In Central Asia, the public "prayers of the Turks to Tengri" were conducted
view here is that they are directly or indirectly connected with the shamanhood between what is now 5 and 10 June without the participation of women and
phenomenon. One of the most significant Bulgarian-Turkic parallels noted by shamans (after Ee3epTHHOB 2000: 74-75, with References). Similar evidence
Chuvash and Tatar scholars concerns the structure of the state (as a synthesis is offered by Potapov (IloTanoB 1991: 264-267) regarding "prayers to Tengri"
of the nomadic and sedentary ways of life, with a hierarchically organized so- led by an "elder" (without a shaman) at a sacred tree among the Khakas. During
cial system and developed runic writing). They think that the state of the Volga the public prayers and sacrifices to the Sky and the Sun (among the Kachin),
Bulgars, Tengriism, and even the pentatonic scales came from the tradition of "women and shamans were not allowed to take part ... which shows that this
"the ancient Turks, founded by the H u n s " (Oaii3paxMaH0B 2000: 71, 84, with cult is not associated with the spirits of the dead or with the 'primordial' chthonic/
References; ypiviaHHeeB 2 0 0 1 : 4 6 7 ) ; that "the religion of the Proto-Bulgarians underworld spirits, but with a deity of another order" (TyMHJibOB 1967).
belongs to the ancient Turkic religious system"; that "the cult of Tangra/Teiri The evidence about the rites of the Turks attests to a type of religiosity that
among the Karachay, Balkar and Proto-Bulgarians" is "a continuation of the was maintained by the khan institution (not by shamans) among the nobles and
ancient Turkic tradition" (Xomxo>KeB et al. 1994: 171, 174). The question of the c o m m o n people (during the "public prayers to Tengri"). In the ancient large
Tengriism and shamanhood a m o n g the Turks is examined critically by state formations in Asia (such as China or Korea), the genealogy of the supreme
Gumilyov (TyMHjibOB 1967). Citing extensive and various evidence of the ex- power and of the territory itself is descended'from the Sky as an "archetype of
istence of socially differentiated rites and of a "well-developed cult of ances- universal order", a "deity of oaths" and patron of warriors. This idea is per-
tors" among the Turks, he insists that the "worship of Tengri" should not be sonified in the figure of the emperor - son of the Sky and its sole representative
confused with shamanhood and that the ancient Turkic priest (kam) must not be among humans. It is also represented in the naming of Tengri and Umai as
called "shaman". "Buryat shamans, as they are commonly but wrongly called, Tengrikhan, Heavenly Emperor, Benevolent Queen, etc. 23 and even in some
heal and make rain not through the powers of spirithelpers but through prayer to Balkar songs addressing "Teiri K h a n " recorded in the twentieth century
Tengri and to the spirits of the ancestors, who are their protectors and represen- (Xoinxo>KeB, T e o p r n e B 1994: 178, 186). The hypothesis about the spread of
tatives before the deity. ... The analysis of the existing evidence shows that shamanhood within a politically and socially disintegrated structure (after the
such a system [shamanood] did not exist among the Turks in the sixth-seventh break-up of the Turkic khaganates) raises the question of whether it was actu-
centuries... The term kam and the kamlanie itself are first mentioned in the ally a state or a formation of the chiefdom type. It is probable that "native"
twelfth century, and this suggests that the kamlanie among the Turks in Jungaria shamanhood may have existed along with the ritual system of the elite and the
and Altai emerged later" (TyMnjibOB 1967, citing EaH3apoB 1891: 37). single figure of king/priest in some of the multiethnic formations. It is probable
Gumilyov (TyMHJibOB 1967) is also one of the few scholars who examine that precisely this "native" shamanhood preconditioned the additional spread
the soul-concepts of the Turks to prove that these concepts distinguish the lat- of the phenomenon and the subsequent syncretic ideological processes in the
ter from shamanhood. The belief that "the afterlife is a continuation of life on lands of the Turkic khaganates.
earth does not correspond to animism and presupposes that humans do not have Without taking sides with the proponents or opponents of the thesis of the
multiple souls but an individual soul [emphasis added]". A similar opinion Turkic origin of the ancient Bulgars, I will note that they left the territory of
has been expressed about other territories too: "My own investigations in North Pamir even before the creation of the First Turkic Khaganate in the fifth century
America demonstrated quite obviously ... that the monistic soul-concept pre- AD. And that the Bulgarian-Turkic parallels known until now are mostly an
dominates, the closer we come to high culture" (Hultkranz 1953: 144; empha- Indo-Iranian substratum of the ideology of the c o m m o n ancestral territory and
sis added). Gumilyov's thesis is also supported by other contemporary schol- "pre-shamanic" period of the Turks themselves.
ars, using different sources from different periods: "In the period of the Great
Turkic Khaganate, shamanhood did not exist among the Turks; it spread among
them from Siberia at a later time, after the disintegration of the Turkic state . • • Considering the centuries-long accumulations and synthesis in the rites on
when Turkic traditional culture regressed [emphasis added]." The two types of the territories under review here., folk heritage, along with the various written
officers - shaman and kam (a n a m e later used for shamans as well) - probably sources, remains the most reliable source about the ideology of the ancient
existed and operated in parallel for some time (Oaii3paxMaHOB 2002: 81,109, 23
with References). According to Chinese sources, "every year the khagan would For more on the characteristics of the Turkic Tengri and Umai as a divine couple of
heavenly rulers, see HcxaKOB, H3MaftjiOB 2001: 49, etc.
Ill-J
i !| |||l'
134 135

L
l\\

Bulgars. In every single formation of a statehood or state type, the so-called

exoteric, mass rites functioned parallel with the high kingship ideology, and
traces of them are visible in the inherited texts of songs, concepts, and espe-
cially in the rites of passage. In the age of Thracian rulers on the Balkans, the
Orphic faith-doctrine was professed within a narrow circle of male aristo-
cratic society, but this doctrine was not alienated from popular belief, for other-
w i s e s o c i e t y w o u l d h a v e d i s i n t e g r a t e d (see c h a p t e r " P e r k e " ) . T h e re/
11 conceptualization and synthesis of the ancient religious behaviours is mani- T U R A / T E I R I / T A N G R A : DUES INACTU
fested at different levels in and of the folk worldview, whose values also have a
,ll
history and transformation of their own.24 One of the things that m a d e m e most
'ill' sceptical about the possibility that shamanhood existed on the Balkans and among The ancient religion of the Bulgars remains a subject of heated debate. The
the Bulgars in ancient times was the aforementioned Korean shamanhood (see majority of scholars think that the religion of the old Bulgarian mediaeval states
/!! chapter "Classical Territories and Beliefs"). Its survival and "accommodation" was Tengrianstvo or Tengriism. However, it is wrong to assume that its con-
.1 •I |i
on a territory replete with the "systematized, sophisticated and complex teach- tents would be the same in the Asian and East European territories where the
ings" of Confucius, Tao and the Buddha, along with a rich system of family and name of this god (Tangra 1 - precisely a god, not a spirit) is known, or that they
•i calendar rites, simply proves that it is impossible for a particular ethno-culture would have remained unchanged over the centuries. On the Balkans, in the Volga
i ••
Mi to forget its ancXent faith-behaviour, irrespective of the intensity of the spiritual Region and in the .region of the Northern Caucasus and the Sea of Azov, where
I! and social changes in its history. N o matter to what extent it has undergone there has been continuity, gradual development and re-conceptualization of spir-
• ••! syncretization, "restructuring" and sui generis enrichment, the lofty spiritual itual values and ideas for centuries, the true essence of a supreme deity can be
'I'-il influences cannot erase the prototype (and the figure of the shaman) in the lands revealed only if it is sought in the specific type of culture and through the nor-
where it is an immanent, native and authentic part of faith and rites. A n d it is mative ideological system within which it functioned - through the system within
difficult for m e to imagine that the highly conservative, ancient and rich Bulgar- which one and the same God manifests His supremacy even if H e m a y have
ian traditional system would have forgotten the figure of the shaman, i.e. a sig- different n a m e s in different regions or different periods of history. It is
nificant part of itself, had this figure existed at all... well-known that in the course of their history, different societies will draw,
from an a priori established idea of the "divine", the essential ideas that are
necessary for the particular society at the time. This holds true for the formation
of high, royal "cults" as well as for the "popular" social strata where they turn
into folklore (literally into folk lore or wisdom). And that is precisely why in
studying religiosity in a cultural-historical context (in an effort to find what is
specific to a particular society, people and state), one needs to look at different
i!"| kinds of sources that reflect the tangible and intangible levels of the culture in
question (ranging from music to artefacts, acts, constructions, etc.), thus mutu-
ally revealing the principles regulating the relationship between the Cosmos
and Humans, and the life of the particular society...
Almost all texts on the religion of the ancient Bulgars are premised on a
24 Particular thesis about their origin which, as a rule, claims that all other theses
Regarding the Thracian substratum on the Balkans: "the original ritual meaning of the
are wrong. One common problem is that they use the method of direct, superfi-
characters in'ritual performances has, of course, been forgotten. They have been re-concep-
\'H tualized in a new way, with another semantic meaning. ... These changes can be observed at cial comparison (of artefacts, concepts, language forms, etc.) to other ethnic
least twice - during and after Late Antiquity, as well as after the ninth century. The present cultures, with are assumed a priori to be "native". Thus, thanks to the well-
semantic meaning of the characters is the product not of mythological but of conceptual
thinking. That is why the significance of ritual reality has become universal in principle - 1
The earliest mention of the theonym Tangra on the Balkans is in an inscription on a
i ,i for fertility, for rain, for good, for evil. ... Before this level of universals one will find earlier garble column found under the rocks at the ancient Bulgarian sanctuary at Madara (near
ones, the oldest of which are the pagan realities of the Thracian ethno-cultural substratum"- s
humen): "Kana Subigi [Sublime Khan] Omurtag [814-831], ruler by [the will of] god ... was
<I>OJI AJI. 1986: 44-45; emphasis added. ••• and made sacrifices to the god Tangra..." (BenieBjineB 1981: 85).

136 137

L
 I1'1
11 developed scheme linking the Bulgars to the Turks and the implausible inter- has changed in time, their folk ritual system has strong traces of "deep archaism
pretations of some parallels, the spiritual sphere of the mediaeval Bulgars has ... and archaic religious-mythological concepts" which field researchers col-
been credited with having shamanhood. Although the twentieth century saw an lected until and after the mid-twentieth century (MajiKOHflyeB 1988; 1990: 29;
unprecedented boom in literature on shamanhood, as well as in debates on the KyHMe30Ba 2003: 134).
• I I 11' existence of shamanhood among the Turks and Turkic-speaking peoples in Cen- The continuity and preservation of the old faith is particularly tangible
1 •' I tral Asia of different ethnic origins and with different cultures, the contents of among the Chuvash. Two centuries after their late conversion to Christianity
I1 I
shamanic rites have proved hard to digest for Bulgarian non-ethnologists. (1723), their traditional culture proved to be "conserved", so to speak. Schol-
• ' I1 In the Northern Caucasus and the Volga Region, the Supreme God Teiri/ ars have investigated the "pagan ritual folk tradition" of the Chuvash and the
Tura is thought to be of ancient Turkic ethno-cultural origin and, according to Tatars (as well as archaeological and ancient written sources) in an effort to
some scholars, "was brought by the Proto-Bulgarians" (YpMaHneeB 2001:467, find out m o r e a b o u t the a n c i e n t spiritual s y s t e m of the Volga B u l g a r s
with References; EajiKaHCKH, Xainxofl>KOB 1984: 41-51, with References). (KoHmpaTbeB 1991: 110). Considerable research effort has been directed at
1
« n' I As a continuation of the ancient Turkic tradition, he is p r e s u m e d to have been identifying numerous typological and functional parallels in the folk cultures of
-1' influenced to one extent or another by the "mythological views of the Iranian- the Volga Region, of some regions in the Northern Caucasus, and of the Bulgar-
I
4I speaking peoples, with which the Bulgars had contacts in the region of the Cau- ians on the Balkans, manifested at different levels (in the calendar-based ritual
ii casus". The cult of Teiri spread "in t w o ways - top-down, through the state- system and its song cycles, in folktales, concepts, creation legends, astral myths,
administrative and priestly apparatus, and ' b o t t o m - u p ' , in the process of traditional costumes, etc. identified with the help of archaeological and ancient
I
Turkicization of the Alanic and pre-Alanic population connected with the Proto- written sources). After Denisov's monographs (fleHHCOB 1959,1969), ethnolo-
Bulgarian tribes and other (pre-Kipchak) Turks. This process later continued gists and musical folklorists have discovered further evidence about the extant
• I
JI with the arrival of the Polovians/Kumans" (XomxoaceB, TeoprHeB 1994:171- spiritual and material heritage of the Volga Bulgars among the Chuvash, Tatars
I 1 7 2 , 1 7 4 citing KaxoBCKH 1965: 285; AjieKceeBa 1971: 169, etc.). S o m e con- and Finno-Ugrians. In. 1970, N. Kaufman (KaycpMaH 1970) "revealed" the re-
temporary scholars view the "pagan religion" of the Balkar and Karachay as a lationship between Southern Chuvash folk music (considered to be the oldest
form of Tengriism, and their mythology and folklore as a "synthesis of ancient and best preserved in its original form) and folk music in the Western R h o d o p e
Turkic, Alanic and pan-Caucasian components" inherited from the Scythians, Mountains (in Southeastern Bulgaria), whereas some years later Kondratyev
Sarmatians, Huns, Bolgars/Bulgars, Khazars, Avars and others (/J,>KypTy6aeB (KoH/jpaTbeB 1995) verified the close "historic-genetic relationship" between
I " 2004). the ritual-genre systems in Chuvash and Bulgarian folklore on the Balkans, in-
T h e spread of "global" religions in the Bulgarian state territories did not cluding with respect to musical organology. In view of this, the question that
II eradicate the previous worldview, traces of which can still be found in the so- inevitably arises is to what extent, and which, of the existing relationships may
called "domestic Christianity" and "folk Islam". Despite the progressive de- be regarded as a substratum of the c o m m o n cultural-historical past, and what
struction of the old value system and rites/norms in the last century, they contin- were the prerequisites for this.
ued to shape, generally speaking, particular types of behaviour in rural patriar- It is well-known that similar mythic and religious ideas, narratives, ritual
chal communities in a specific regional form (among the Bulgarians, Chuvash, objects, characters, musical-style traits and so on can be believed, articulated,
Balkar, etc.) until the mid-twentieth century. Despite the early spread of Chris- sung, recreated at different worldview and musical levels in different ethnic
tianity and, later, of Judaism and Islam in the region of the Caucasus, a number traditions from different periods of history. Typological similarities, however,
of mediaeval and later observers point out the superficial Christianization and do not necessarily signify a similarity in the way of thinking of different commu-
Islamization of the population in the vast region of the Caucasus. 2 Also despite nities or the sameness of their ethno-cultural spheres and origins. Their own
the fact that Sunni Islam became increasingly influential after the second half of Profile may be identified best before a particular level of cultural universals
the eighteenth century, the Balkar "remained essentially pagan ... and worshipped because it is not the structure in itself but its filling out with ideas and their
lr
sacred rocks and trees" almost until the mid-twentieth century. E v e n though it nplications that creates the identity of a culturally-historically (and not geo-
I I
graphically) assimilated territory. Uneven metres and diaphony were neither
M
mvented by nor are they specific to the Bulgarians, contrary to what some popu-
2
Although the question of the influence of Christianity and Islam on the traditions H> lar publications claim. The Bulgarian syncretic Music form is recognized to
the territories under review is very important, it is not a subject of this book. This also ap- be unique because of the relationships of its constituent components which ac-
plies to the Iranian and Zoroastrian substratum which according to some scholars (TpodMMOB
count for the specificity of the musical-expressive style. There are fire-walkers
1993) is significant in Bulgar pagan ideology.

138 139

•
ffi 1 i ;

III in many parts of the world, but they are nestinari only in the southeastern Thracian ian only), we will be rewarded with proof of the time-honoured invariable rule
lands of ethnic Orphism... I would like to note here that there are hundreds of that every people remembers itself not through its "history-as-events" (as
scientific publications whose sole purpose seems to be to enumerate and de- Alexander Fol puts it) but through the history of its ideas which remain alive in
scribe various c o m m o n features, concluding that something or other was sup- their past and old-new present form. The question of the similarities and rela-
posedly typical of many peoples. This scientific ".policy", which does,not look tionships between the traditional cultures of the present-day Bulgarians and the
i; for the specificity of a people (within the very "scheme" of the universal) and peoples inhabiting their old territories should be more rightly approached as
well-nigh diminishes the importance of facts by viewing them as universal, is follows: what is more important is not the universally known "sign system" of
especially typical of Russian-language literature. It seems that by old habit, the rites (in terms of similar artefacts, acts, topoi of faith, concepts, etc.) but the
latter assumes that subjects may not exceed the roof height of the imperial pal- value system and type of religiosity that generated and transmitted them to the
ace - be it a straw hut... From the perspective of my work, such methods of future generations (in terms of continuity of ideas, of ritual behaviours...). If w e
global comparisons and levels of universals are utterly futile for the simple unravel folk memory, this could help us to place a given event or find in context
reason that the specific and distinctive manifestations of a particular idea and and even to "read between the lines" of ancient written history, thus extracting
its parallels in folklore are of scientific value only if they are sought in the faith more information from the sparse and highly subjective records. T h e "explora-
ll' ; i j and value system that have generated them. tion" of ancient sources, temples and rock-cut sanctuaries of the Bulgars cannot
In the especially active, so-called "contact ethno-cultural zones" (such the in itself provide a key to the mindset that built the "image" of the Supreme but
;:Vi Volga Region, the Balkans and the Northern Caucasus), numerous components not single god, to his dimensions/divine hypostases, to the various social "tasks"
in the sphere of folk tradition are indeed manifested in similar contents and in and contents of the phenomenon of monotheism in mediaeval Bulgarian society.
similar ways. The commonality of the worldview underlying many ritual prac- It cannot provide a key to the question, how does a god become a God?
tices in the territories under review here is the result of a centuries-long pro-
cess of formation and functioning of the so-called Indo-European ethno-cultural
model. Along its route and especially in its later folkloric components I would Various observers from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries report that
look not for the origins of a particular people but for the specific manifestation the Chuvash believed in a "Sky God who took care of human affairs" (Mnjijiep
of ritual behaviours and concepts as the product of a successive diachronic 2001: 111); H e is "the greatest G o d " (Man, Typ£), "Creator of the Universe",
synthesis of cultures. It is precisely this specificity that can point us to the con- the source of all human goods (BHIHHCBCKHH 2001: 231-232; JlenexHH 2001:
text of their manifestation and identity and, ultimately, to the need and ability of 214). The resilience of these concepts was documented also at the beginning of
a particular people to accept and emanate ideas, making them its own. the twentieth century by Meszaros: "The entire system of beliefs and sacrifices
Thanks to the continuity of the so-called/o/i: faith (to which the previous of the pagan Chuvash attests eloquently to their monotheistic worldview ... to
high ideology has been "reduced"), it is possible to identify substratal, "mater- recognition of a single supreme God ... w h o m they call JJep TypaTThe Only
nal" traces in a gradually inherited tradition even at a late -time in history, as God, Cynmu Typa/The Supreme God, Man Typa/The Great God. Converted
long as this faith has not been aggressively distorted by external geopolitical to Christianity, the Chuvash call the Russian god Typa/Turatoo, and associate
factors. And the traces of the ancient Bulgar faith and religion may be sought as him with the ancient pagan faith" ( M e c a p o i u 2000: 21-26; similarly in
preserved and recreated in the sphere, of folk concepts and rituals of later TpodpHMOB 1993: 175).
peoples in these lands (the Northern Caucasus, the Volga Region, the Balkans) The evidence collected since the sixteenth century reflects the so-called'
irrespective of their different political and ideological trajectories. M a n y of monotheistic religiosity of the Chuvash manifested in their ritual system, hier-
them remember, and some still worship at sanctuaries near springs and sacred archy of deities, concepts of the structure of the world and its order, etc. This
trees, an ancient Supreme God with a c o m m o n name and similar contents. Do type of ideology is also known in science as pagan monotheism - belief in a
we have sufficient grounds to compare his traces in the different ethno-cultural supreme but not single god and reproduction/multiplication of his traits and
heritages precisely as a parallelly preserved substratum of a c o m m o n ideol- nature in numerous "forms".
>ii ogy? To what extent, and which of, the extant "pagan" rituals give us reason to
judge about the ancient faith of the Bulgars and its dimensions, about the Su- 3
The Chuvash Typt/Top-b is thought to come from the ancient Turkic Tengr/Tangri
preme God i n mediaeval Bulgarian religion? If we approach folk m e m o r y in (AuiMapHH 1902;fleHHCOB1959, etc.). The theonym Tangra is of Sumerian origin (from
these territories impartially and honestly, i.e. as scientists and not as politi- Dingir - god, with derivatives in Iranian: tagra, tigarna, tandra). This type of names is associ-
cians, (and, moreover, if we do not presume that this memory is ancient Bulgar- ated in various ways with fire and thunder in different languages. For more on the occurrence
of this theonym and its connection with ancient Indo-Iranian culture, see KH3 2001: 410.

140 141
I1'
 I'll'I PP

1.1
1,1, smith of the solar and the sky people to this very day" were formed from the
In the mytho-narratives of the Balkar and Karachay, the creator of the Uni-
sparks that flew from his anvil. Debet's heart, blood and soul were m a d e of
.'Jl verse is Ullu Teiri/The Great Teiri, Khan Teiri/The Ruling Teiri, Kek Teirisi/
fire, and his body of steel; he eats stones like bread ("in order to learn what is
'!'iir The Sky Teiri (^>KypTy6aeB, EonaTOB 1990: 127, with References). Belief in
in every stone") and speaks with them in the Nart forests; he speaks the lan-
him was still alive at the beginning of the twentieth century: "The c o m m o n folk
'J1 guage of fire, of water and of the earth, of stones and everything around (HapTbi
do not worship Allah but Tengri, who is the Creator of G o o d s " (KjianpoT
li 1994: 303, 304, 596, 616,626). The specific contents of the myth of Debet (his
1974: 245). Malkonduev, who studied the Balkar ritual tradition in the second
power over animate and inanimate matter, his knowledge of the language of
'i'i ' half of the twentieth century, reports that "Teiri, who is not known to the other
everything around, his role as demiurge and forefather, etc.) make him equal to
;,/,' Caucasian peoples, is a supreme deity with a preserved cosmogonic function
Teiri Kainar. Dzhurtubaev (/^^ypTyGaeB 1991: 157-158) interprets these
... Teiri/Tengri ... is invoked in every single ritual" (MajncoHjxyeB 1990: 7-
figures as "two stages in the development of one and the same mythological
y\. . 22). Nowadays, when Islam has spread also to the highland villages, people
figure".
i MI think of H i m as equal to the new god ("Teiri is a god like Allah" 4 ); the two are
Analogous stories are found in the Bulgarian myths about giants. T h e first
iir invoked together in many songs and even in prayers.
man was "very big and very t a l l . . . tall enough to touch the sky with his hand ...
The analysis of relevant mytho-narratives and concepts show that Teiri has
•','. a giant o f a m a n . . . " (MapHHOB 1914: 152). The giants are "the first people ...
"reduced and replaced an ancient solar deity (the local creator of the Universe,
who grew from the earth". The bodily "nature" of these figures and the seman-
the Sun-God Kainarllit. boiling) ... turning, in the course of the further evolu-
tic oppositions head/sky/upper - legs/earth/lower6 are metaphorical designa-
tion of the cult, into a polyfunctional supreme g o d . . . . As a result of the deifica-
tions of the celestial-chthonic. Their connection with the lower sphere/earth is
tion of Teiri as the supreme god, the cognate and derivative terms for sea and
also represented as tripping = death ("even if his head is cut off ... the giant
sky [Turkic tengiz and tengir, originally meaning "sea", both earthly and celes-
•Ii" dies only when he trips and falls"). In a folksong about Krali Marko, the giant
tial sea] became a theonym" (TF^cypTyGaeB 1991: 166-169). This "evolution" "cannot be slashed across the waist but only across the legs from the knees
of the god has been reconstructed primarily from the 'Nart cosmogonic myths of down, where our giants generally feel weaker" (HjineB 1891: 244, 247, 252).
the Karachay-Balkar: The Sun Teiri created the sun, and the Earth Teiri the This evidence corresponds to the Bulgarian concept of the lower world and "its
:•'"'.
i .11 earth; humans and seas were created next, but the myths do not say who created people" who "tie [bands] around their knees" (MapHHOB 1984: 49), probably
V", them. The Sky, Sun, Earth and Water Teiri gave humans goods - water, food also to the Chuvash tradition of tying the legs of sacrificial animals 7 as well as
'•|'i. (lit. "the growth of the crop from the earth"), light/sun and rain- from the sky. to the finds of skeletons with tied or broken lower limbs in ancient Bulgar
"The head of all gods", the Sun Teiri gives his warmth to the earth in summer necropolises (EenieBjiHeB 1981: 87; for more on legs as a chthonic indicator
'"l" and sends part of his warmth to the world of the dead in winter "to w a r m them" encoding the lower sphere in Thracian mythology, see M a p a 3 0 B 1995: 12}.
•ii'
(HapTbi 1994: 302). One of the heroes in the Karachay-Balkar Nart Sagas, Eryuzmek, who is also
"I'i
One remarkable aspect of the Nart myths is the primordial tetrad of gods = regarded as "identical" with the Sun God/Teiri Kainar, is of steel from the
h.i
the four cosmogonic elements (sky/air, sun/fire, earth, water), and m o r e pre- waist down; he melts and dies when he violates the order forbidding him to be
cisely, the ways in which this tetrad is interpreted and manifested in divine with a woman (HapTbi 1994: 363). Similarly to the giant/Debet, Eryuzmek is a
ii
personages. O n e ancient personification of these four primordial elements as "chief of the Nart" and a hero-demiurge (a theomachist who unlocks waters and
well as of the celestial-chthonic as an entity is the mythical figure of the giant. restores the cosmic order). 8 According to Dzhurtubaev, the n a m e of the Nart is
The story of "the cosmic marriage" - the conjoining of the Sky Teiri and the
Earth Teiri (through a thunderbolt) which led to the birth of Debet the giant from 6
For more on an archaic type of cosmogony in the myth of the primordial giant in the
the earth - is found only in the Karachay-Balkar Nart Sagas. 5 D e b e t is the
K'g Veda, from whose body humans, animals, luminaries, gods, etc., were born, and from
forefather of the Nart people and a sky blacksmith; he made the first hammer w
hose head the sky was born, see Ejinaae 1997: 274-278.
and tongs and struck iron, whereas the stars in the sky where he is "the black- 7
For example, at the sacred spring (Chuvash Komaga shelye) near the village of Staroe
I'nioshkino (observed by the author in August 2002). The Chuvash visit this sanctuary for
ii Worship in the days around the Christian Saint Peter's Day, whereas the Tatars visit it at Kurban
4
Informant Amush B. Mogametovich, born 1927, RN 2005, village of Verkhnyaya °ayram. According to the local people, this was a "purely Chuvash place".
8
Balkaria, Cherek Region, Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria (hereinafter RKB). This type of personification of Teiri (as a hero and a giant) is also mentioned by
5 ^°vses Kagankatvatsi in the tenth century ("[W]hen concluding an alliance, the Hun tribes in
For more on the fusion of the cosmogonic primordial elements, and on the marriage
"t Northern Caucasus swore by the law of the sky ... and sacrificed horses to some monster,
of the earth and the sky which led to fertility and to the birth of the Moon (among the Bulgar- a
giant hero, calling him god Tangrikhan" - from ITneTHeBa 1976: 32).
ians on the Balkans), see reoprneBa 1983: 14-15.
143
142

ii.. I
Tw-
it \\ '•i I

"the second n a m e of the supreme deity, and the cycle of myths about him is a ( K ^ E : 472). A similar "community" of giants was created also by the Supreme
l'' Tura in the classical form of a thunderer: "An yndn/Uldp, tired from hunting,
biography of Teiri from his birth to his deification" (/J,>KypTy6aeB 1991: 164,
lay down to rest in the sky as on a bed and fell asleep. When his four brothers
172, 173; similarly in rj^^cypxyGaeB, EojiaTOB 1990).
K,1| returned they tried to wake him up in vain. Then they hoisted the sky on their
Another distinctive feature of giants in Bulgarian myths which symbolizes
shoulders at its four corners and lifted it up high. The giant woke up and set out
their connection with the sky is their stone heads and "stony heart ... They
to look for his brothers, and the celestial vault began shaking beneath his f e e t . . .
i ' i, were not afraid of thunder: when they caught dragons firing and shooting/ire
sparks flew. That is how lightning and thunder were born, while the tears of the
•liV arrows from above, the giants would take stones as huge as rocks and shout: My
weeping giant w h o was left alone in the sky gave'birth to rain" ( E r o p o B H . Pi.
t r head is of stone! So how can you hurt m e ? " (HjineB 1890:199-200; 1891:247;
1995: 116)." This type of Tatar myths and legends are seen as relicts of "the
emphasis added). In the Northern Caucasus, the solar/celestial aspect of giants
v;i", ancient Bulgarian epos" (YpMaHHeeB 2001: 472).
is also manifested in the origination of gold, silver and iron ore as a "rain of
„if. sparks and stones" sent by Kainar Teiri (HapTbi 1994: 302). Without specify- In the above-quoted and other similar material, the figure of the giant is a
ing his sources, Egorov writes that the masculine principle embodied in the substratum of the earlier cosmogonic belief in the unity of the primordial ele-
Chuvash Amme TypalGod the Father was created by "fire stone" ( E r o p o B H. ments which preceded personified deities. In the Nart Sagas, the fire/sun ele-
H . 1995: 116). A typical metaphor for lightning and thunderbolts in Bulgarian ment gives birth to successive mythical figures/giants: Kainar - Debet -
•.:'
folksongs is "struck stone" (HeiiKOBa, T o a o p o B 2007: Xe 928,929). The Balkar Eryuzmek - The Supreme teiri or, in other words, cosmogonic element -
I ',' h, say that everything that has been struck by lightning has healing powers. 9 The forefather/sky blacksmith - hero-demiurge - Supreme God. This type of ar-
11
. chaic cosmogony underlies the worship of aniconic "images" of the god through
productive divine function of stone is probably manifested also in the ritual
practice of hanging stones on fruit trees so that they will bear fruit (Fig. 30).10 and at sacred rocks/stones and rock-cut sanctuaries located, as a rule, on high
Ml' One Bulgarian legend goes that "a house that has a thunderbolt arrow (elon- ground (Fig. 31). Among the Bulgarians on the Balkans, evidence of such rituals
, ri-jl' gated pebbles or, more correctly, fossils) will not be struck by lightning" is found in pre-Christian archaeological sites and in later forms of folklore.
(T'bGbOB 1926:153). Stone and lightning/ thunderbolts/arrows are typical sym- The same archaic cosmogony underlies the solar and astral aspects of the
i bols of the Supreme Sky God (Typa/Tura, who throws arrows from the sky at Supreme Tura/Teiri/Tangra preserved at different levels in the folk tradition
, \h of the Northern Caucasus, the Volga Region and the Balkans (Fig. 3 2 , 3 3 ) . The
11 Kiremet, is a "master of the b o w " - K ^ I E : 416, see below; for more on arrows
"of fire, with a point of flint" which dragons cast at demons and Saint Iliya/ solar symbols in many archaeological finds from the time of Volga Bulgaria, as
iii well as in the traditional culture of the Chuvash and Kazan Tatars after their
, 11 Elijah casts at sinful people, see MapHHOB 1914: 26-27).
In Bulgarian, Chuvash and Balkar myths, giants are associated with cre- adoption of Islam, are associated precisely with Tura. Early observers from the
•:ii
ation myths and typical topoi of "passage" - wells, dolmens, with "stones as seventeenth century report that along with prayers to God and his "retinue", the
'id
huge as rocks", with "old graveyards with large stones ... where they were Chuvash "pray to the sun and the m o o n because they have a positive effect on
i" the land and cattle ... that they venerate quite well and entirely consciously the
• i buried" (HnneB 1890: 202). A m o n g the Chuvash, onan/yndn or blap/uldp were
"giant-size people, now dead": "An ynan lifted a ploughman together with the sun and everything that is alive" (OjieapHH 2001: 81). The Balkar and Karachay
i-1
i ploughman's six horses and plough, took them to his mother and told her, 'Look, also pray to the sun, the moon and the stars for well-being (MajiOKOHflyeB
i'i Mother, I have brought you the ants that plough t h e earth!' Along the way, he J990: 134; KyMMe30Ba 2003: 43). In the past, the Balkar celebrated Teiri with
shook off the soil from his paws every now and then, and that is how big hills songs-hymns", with dances and music at the ruins of the Teiri-Kiala fortress
(kurgan) were formed." Folk legend has it that this is how many hills, which the (in the Chegem Region) built "at the will of the deity" (MajiOKOHnyeB 1988:
Northern and Southern Chuvash call "land of the giant" (yuan manpu), cams 26). The Teiri-toi ritual and the eponymous dance "began early in the morning
about. T h e Kazan Tatars call the giant anun, and their legend is very .similar to before sunrise and ended in the night, when the moon appeared. ... T h e danc-
the Chuvash one ( M e c a p o i u 2000: 53; emphasis added). Similarly to Eryuzmek,
Ulap is a "strong and good" hero-giant who "protects people from enemy at- 11
Among the Balkar: "If you want to curse someone very strongly, you say, 'May Teiri
tacks and natural disasters, and helps them uproot trees and expand their fields strike you!' " (Informant Mariyan Pupoeva, born in the village of Bulungu in 1932, RN 2005,
village of Kashkhatau, Chegem Region, RKB). A similar curse among the Bulgarians unam-
'guously suggests the God-Sun-Thunderer triad: "May he who shines 'shine' [i.e. strike -
116
9
Informant Ismail Akkiev, born in the village of Mukkush in 1932, RN 2005, town < two words are homonymous in Bulgarian] you! May he strike you from a clear sky!" ("A a
e
CBeTHe TOH, mo cBetii! J\SL Te rpi>MHe H3 HCHO He6o!") - when "there is thunder and
Nalshyk,RKB. 'ghtning without clouds ... this is a sign from God, a miracle" (MapHHOB 1914: 35).
10
Informant Arsen Zhilyaev, born 1958, RN 2005, village of Zayukovo, RKB.
145
144
m
 |^pF

ers, including everyone present and even the severely ill, prayed to the sun, the indigenous ancient (Circumpontic) spirituality, which preconditioned their ethno-
moon and the stars for well-being during the year" (KyiiaeB 1997: 116-118; cultural consolidation with the Thracian substratum. A result of this synthesis
emphasis added). At sunrise and immediately before a new moon, the Balkar are the conceptually similar for the Bulgars and the Thracians ritual be-
said that "Teiri's door is opening ... but not everyone is fated to see this. ... haviours and practices, the mytheme of the union of the cosmogonic elements
Those who pray at this time will have their wish come true." 1 2 There is unam- and their symbolizations, the concepts of the luminaries as personifications of a
biguous evidence in Bulgarian folklore that the sun and the moon are regarded supreme being, etc.
as gods ("The sun is a god and that is why nothing bad should be done against
i t " - r e o p r H e B a l 9 8 3 : 17; "When there is a full moon ... old people show it to Parallel with the myths about giants, some Chuvash creation tales contain
children and call it 'Grandfather G o d ' " - MapHHOB 1984: 49-50, etc.). Such another concept familiar from Indo-Iranian religion - that of a pair of creator
I concepts are also found in ancient written sources: "Owing to Scythian mad- gods, who are equals. The pair is also found in later variants, where the two
ness [the Bulgars] served the Sun as well as the Moon a n d the other stars" gods are represented as a good and a bad god, as a Supreme God and his
( T h e o p h . Sym. H i s t o r i a m a r t y r i i X V m a r t y r u m - P a t r o l o g i a G r a e c a ed. Antagonist. According to Artemyev's ethnographic study of the Chuvash in the
M u g n e . T 126 p p . 189, quoted from EemeBjiHeB 1929: 165); in the dispute nineteenth century, they worshipped "two antagonistic divine forces", which
11 i! between the Christian Kinamon and the Bulgarian Khan Omurtag (814-831, they believed were twin brothers. Tura is the creator of the Cosmos and the
i 'I
Danubian Bulgaria), where Kinamon says, " T h o s e various ones w h o m you Earth, God of the Sky and of the Upper World, of good and of light; Shoitan/
worship as Gods ... And if you point out the Sun and the Moon and force me to Shuitan (from Arabic shaitan) is the creator and lord of the L o w e r World. Tura
be amazed at their brightness'... Omurtag said, ' D o n ' t humiliate ... our Gods. created the plains, and Shuitan the mountains and valleys by "spitting the soil
For their power is g r e a t ' . . . Kinamon ... 'And the idols and their altars and left in his mouth" (ApTeMbeB 2001: 57-58). The two gods created all plants
sacrilegious temples shall c o l l a p s e . . . ' " (Theoph. Migne, Patrol, gr. t. 126, p. and animals (Tura those that are sacredly pure and therefore may be offered as
29-33, quoted from 3jiaTapcKH 1994: 332-333; emphasis added; the Greek text sacrifice, such as apples, cows and sheep; Shuitan potatoes, goats, pigs, fish,
is quoted in a footnote in EeineBJiHeB 1929: 165; 1981: 75). etc.); Tura created man and gave him a soul ( E r o p o B H . H . 1995: 113, 117-
,I The belief in the sun as a Supreme God raises, on the one hand, the question 118). In other variants of the Chuvash creation myth, the universe was created
of the continuity of the ancient Circumpontic religiosity, 13 and on the other, of by Tura with the help of his twin brother or firstborn Son Kiremet/Keremet.
the "history" of the ancient Bulgar religion - let us tentatively call it Tengriism The name comes from karamat (from Persian into Turkic and Arabic - miracle;
- and its successive development and enrichment in the Northeastern Pontic AiiiMapHH 1902; HBaHOB et al. 2000: 82-83); the earlier mytho-ritual Chuvash
region. Moving into the Balkans after the fifth century, the Bulgars brought their term was probably bipd/bipaceM (holy, sacred) or Kupenne (lit. "necessary"),
ancient astrological knowledge/concepts 1 4 while "restoring" elements of the which they used to refer to the annual village-wide sacrifices in honour of Titra. 15
As a "mediator between the celestial and chthonic deities" and lord of the Lower
12 World, Kiremet is Shuitan's double. The two figures are Tura's antagonists as a
Informant Ismail Akkiev, born in the village of Mukkush in 1932, RN 2005, town of
Nalshyk, RKB. According to other accounts, "the door of the God/Teiri eshik" opens only in personification of "evil" which, according to Egorov ( E r o p o B 1995: 114-115,
the night of 22 June; the belief, according to elderly people, that this could happen at night at 122, 205), originated under the influence of Islam and Christianity (Shuitan is a
any time of the year but only to people with "a pure soul" is thought to have developed later "devil ... ineptly imitating Tura's actions", and his creations are "hostile to
(rj,*ypTy6aeB 1991: 139). man"; unfortunately, Kiremet "fell under the influence of evil and was expelled
13
For more on the resilience of the sacred topoi and of the belief in personified cos- by Tura from the Upper World"). This concept most likely underlies the Chuvash
mogonic elements, professed in a traceable continuity by different ethno-cultural and cul- belief that "the souls of evil people turned into kiremets after death" (from
tural-linguistic communities in the. Circumpontic Region, see OOJI B. 2007: 8; for more on
the Circumpontic "pure faith in the sun", see OOJI AJI. 1997: 122; for more on the solar WBaHoB et al. 2000: 82-83). An analogous antipodal creator is the Karachay-
amulets of "Tengri-Khan" in the Northern Caucasus, worn by the Sabir (ancestors of the Balkar Kiyrkiauuzlu Soltan/Shuitan, creator of darkness and chaos, w h o
Chuvash), see njie-raeBa 1976: 33-34; for more on the solar aspects of Teiri in the Northern 'turned into an evil demon, patron of evil spells" (KapaneTOB 2001: 68-69).
,|' i Caucasus, see A»ypTy6aeB, EonaTOB 1990; KyziaeB 1997: 116-118; MajiOKomryeB 1988: The practice of personifying good and evil can be traced back to the Indo-
26; for more on the rites in honour of the re-/born sun among the Karachay, Balkar and "their Iranian cultural circle and Zoroastrianism, and it is difficult to date its various
U kindred Volga Tatars, Bashkir and Chuvash'', see ,3,>KypTy6aeB 1991: 194-196. folk interpretations with precision. What is more important is that in the territo-
14
For more- on the astral concepts of the Bulgars, the solar principle of their ideology
related to the Eastern Iranian world and, more precisely, with Mithraism, for spiritual paral-
15
lels between the Bulgars and the peoples in the region of the Western Pamir Mountains, N.I. Egorov's editorial note to JlenexHH 2001: 225, to Elajijiac 2001: 164, and to
see XodpapT 2004: 58-112. BHniHeBCKHH 2001: 246.

146 147
i •
T

ries under review, the identification of deities as good and evil reflects earlier and kiremets are rectangular enclosures aligned to the four cardinal points;
cosmogonic conceptions of the unity of primordial elements and beings as mu- these places "must not be ploughed, mowed, insulted verbally; firewood must
tually generative, necessary and complementary. This is also evident in Kiremet's not be taken from them nor branches broken from the tree" (BHUiHeBCKHH 2001:
manifestation as a double of the Supreme Deity in some rites and mytho-narra- 247).
tives, where he is represented as the opposite of "evil". Travelling around the
Earth in a chariot drawn by white horses, Kiremet brought fertility and good Uncle Vanya somehow didn't want to submit to this spring [at the foot of the
kiremet] and when the kolkhoz was gathering hay ... he managed to take much of the
fortune to humans; instigated by Shuitan, they killed him and burned his body to
hay to the bank of the spring, where he lit it This fellow died a very painful and slow
cover up their evil deed. But the wind scattered his ashes and from them grew
death ... and when his soul finally departed from his body, it repeated over and over
trees through which the son of God (Kiremet) was reborn. That is how the
again, "I feel so hot... It's all because of that kiremet." You must not do anything at a
kiremets appeared - they are "evil deities" inhabiting the vicinities of every place like this... (RN 2002, village of Novoe Aksubaevo, Tatarstan)
village and bringing illness, drought, hailstorms, etc. The Chuvash believe that
i.iii if they had not continued propitiating "the deprived of life in the skies" Kiremet According to Denisov, the motif of the World Tree/Tree of Life was brought
by offering him sacrifices, they would long since have died out ( E r o p o B H . H. to the Middle Volga Region, including in Chuvash textiles, by "the Turkic-speaking
1995:118-119; ApTeMbeB 2001: 57-58). In Chuvash folktales, the god is killed Bulgar tribes"; unlike the Eastern Slavs, among "the Turkic and Finno-Ugric
and burned by humans, for which they have been punished continuously since peoples in the Volga Region ... the cult of the sacred tree had central place ...
I time immemorial. Burning and rendering to ashes, however, is within the remit and there are more distinct traces of it today" (/J,eHHC0B 1959: 55, 60, 77, with
<lli' of the Supreme God-Thunderer, therefore what w e probably have here are References). T h e ethnic attribution of such cults is questionable. T h e sacred
theomachistic motifs re-conceptualized as "punishment" (in Chuvash mytho- tree as a symbol of the supreme deity is an ancient cultural universal transmitted
ii-'i narratives, the sky Tura casts thunderbolts at Kiremet), as well" as traces of His in different language environments and territories, and re-conceptualized within
cult. In folk rites, which originated after the myth and probably "recreate" the the value systems of the relevant communities. It is noteworthy that it is not
fate of the God, the animals sacrificed to Tura must be eaten, their bones and sacred objects in themselves but the ways they are worshipped that can b e
innards burned, and their ashes scattered by the wind (from BHUiHeBCKHH 2001: attributed to a specific ethno-cultural community and epoch. For example, the
254). T h e earlier aspect of Kiremet (as a creator bringing good fortune) is also evidence about metal images or "idols" in sanctuaries and temples, i.e. about
manifested in the veneration of Kardallg Yrg/Enclosed Good - a field kiremet the ways and degrees of symbolic representation of a Supreme Deity, is much
south of the village of Saldakevo (Nurlat Region, Tatarstan); this sanctuary, more significant in this respect. Pallas's travel diary from the eighteenth century
venerated in the past by many Chuvash villages, is now venerated by fewer contains a brief description of the central wooden structure at Chuvash sanctu-
people "for family health" (Oejj;oTOBa). aries and of a sacred metal object like a triangle pointing up:
V Both at the level of myths and rites Kiremet is manifested as a double
At the centre of the kiremets there is a sacred wooden structure [with three walls,
of the supreme Tura, duplicating his functions and essence in various ways.
! II open to the east] called kiremet lassi, in which they ate the sacrificial meat in a standing
"The great Kiremet is the chief deity of this world and that is why his retinue position; for the purpose, there are long tables with tablecloths inside. At the centre of
resembles T u r a ' s " ("standing face to face with the kiremet, a messenger open- the room there is a pole stuck in the ground and running through the roof; at the top of
•M1 ing the gates of the dwelling, an envoy, servant, cleaner, etc." - BnuiHeBCKHK the pole is an iron circle, flat at the base and tapering towards the top... (riajiJiac
2001: 233, 247). Early observers as well as the latest field studies have found 2001: 158; 165)
that both Kiremet and Tura are worshipped at sacred places with similar con-
tents and symbols (in forests, on hills near a gully with a spring, in the field, at Theophanes' account of the dispute between the Christian Kinamon and the
sacred trees; among the Balkar, at a "tree of T e i r i " - KyflaeB 1997: 117). Even Bulgarian Khan Omurtag ("the idols and their altars and sacrilegious temples
today, people describe "the true kiremet" as a hill with a sacred oak-tree and a shall collapse"), quoted above, corresponds to the evidence about the exist-
spring at the foot of the hill. As an example, they give the two old sanctuaries, ence of "silver and electron [".a shining metal", an alloy of gold and silver]
one near the ancient Bulgarian town of Bilyar and the other near the village of idols which the Hun-Bulgars worshipped" in Great Bulgaria (3jiaTapcKH 1994:
i M ii Staroe Timoshkino (both in present-day Tatarstan, Fig. 3 4 , 3 5 ) . T h e concept of 49, with the Greek text of the Theophylacti in a footnote) and to later, nine-
hills as a dwelling-place with high divine and social status is also represented teenth-century, finds of gold and bronze sculptural representations in a sacred
in song texts (for example, "There are t w o on this mountain, one is G o d and the forest near the town of Bolgar from the time of Volga Bulgaria: "[S]ome of them
other K i n g " - KoHnpaTbeB 2001a: 52, 57). Both the sanctuaries of M a n Tura had three faces and a cubit-long torso with legs to the knees"; according to early
twentieth-century accounts, "two gold idols, one of which ended up in the pos-

148 149
<.

session of an eminent person residing in Kazan at the time of Alexander I, were The Chuvash and Balkar calendar cycles contain private/family and pub-
discovered" in the ruins of the town of Bolgar. 16 lic/village-wide rituals dedicated to TuraVTeiri and Kiremet. Before marrying,
These and other accounts disprove a popular and often cited opinion about Chuvash girls offered home-made linen cloth to kiremets (BnuiHeBCKHH 2001:
the sanctuaries and their Zoroastrian origins ("The Earth, nature below the Ce- 238); Balkar brides-to-be prayed for their future family's well-being at the
lestial Vault, w a s the actual temple of believers ... a principle which also de- Raubaza, sacred trees (wild pear, pine trees) venerated b y all Balkar. In the
termined the choice of a particular landscape as the location of kiremets and village of Verkhnaya Balkaria, newly married w o m e n offered clothes to the
sanctuaries" - TpodpHMOB - K H 3 2001: 207; at the core of "the old Chuvash Raubaza "as to a human", hanging them on its branches; the villagers remember
faith ... is the worship of personified and deified nature [?] ... therefore it [the that there once was a big notched stone under the tree. They prayed and m a d e
old Chuvash faith] did not have either churches [the universe itself w a s the offerings to the tree when there were important events' in the family, such as a
temple] or idols" - E r o p o B H . H . , note to OjieapHH 2001: 84). Could it b e that birth or death, before setting out on a long journey, for conception, etc. 17 There
Zoroastrianism is used here primarily as an excuse for the absence of architec- are eighteenth- and nineteenth-century accounts of the existence of family kiremets
tural/temple sites, i.e. cultural tourist sites? Such concepts interpret w h a t l thought at which the Chuvash offered sacrifices in the event of illness in the family or
was an already outdated view that the gods, spirits, animals and so on, "per- among cattle, as well as for well-being (BHUiHeBCKHH 2001: 234). At the same
sonify nature and its forces", that the god "personifies the sun" (for example, in time, almost every Chuvash village or several villages together offered sacri-
,n,>KypTy6aeB 2004). In the same category is the view regarding "the central fices on a certain day of the year at a "big, c o m m o n kiremet" (MnjiJiep T. O p .
and state-wide cult [among the Bulgars] of the one god Tangra" as "primitive 2001:113-115; E r o p o B H . H . 1995:210).
m o n o t h e i s m " which is claimed to b e "a direct reflection [?] of real reality"
Kiremet was a bad god who is much feared because he punishes people for their
(OBHapoB 1 9 9 7 : 1 5 , 2 6 ) . Defining a "cult" whose carriers have left solid stone
sins and sends to earth disease, death, fires, hailstorms. ... They offer sacrifices to
structures, remains of quite complex fortifications, significant ethno-cultural
propitiate h i m — Many villages collect money together and buy a purely white horse, a
relicts and other visible traces which w e r e obviously not the product of "spur- white bull, a white ram, a white rooster. ... The animals are sacrificed by men, around
of-the-moment improvisation" as "primitive" is, mildly speaking, strange. Such the tree at sunrise. ... They boil the bull in a cauldron ... and leave the skin and bones
definitions involving "nature" a n d "primitiveness" are extremely inadequate around the tree. ... There they offer also cloths, coins, whatever they can... Such a
for the faith and behaviour in the sanctuaries and kiremets in question. They large sacrificial ritual with bulls is performed by several villages together once every few
mistake effect for cause and the creation for the Creator or, in other words, they years; it is performed when the need arises, for example when there is infertility ... if
paradoxically subjugate the G o d to that which H e has created. H e Himself is many people in the village fall ill and die... (Informant German Larshnikov, bom 1955,
manifested through animate and inanimate matter (lightning, rain, rock/phallus, RN 2002, village of Bolshoe Buyanovo, Chuvashia)
sacred animal/bird/reptile...) which symbolizes Him. This direction of mani- Everyone is afraid of this place [kiremets, which are usually located in the vicini-
festation - figuratively speaking, "top-down" - is recorded unambiguously as ties east or northeast of the village] ... A white horse appears there ... it's a dangerous
early as in the ancient Hindu and Chinese sacred texts and even in Siberian place... (RN 2002, village of Novoe Aksubaevo, Tatarstan)
animistic ideology. It is also preserved in later folk rites, where the bull is a
The. concepts of sacrifices and their "sending up" or offering in Chuvash
substitute for the sacrificed God; the falling (from above) meteorite is a tenger,
rites are well-recorded in historical sources, and have parallels i n the worship
and other theophanies of this type... T h e kiremet is not a "temple of nature" but
of sacred places on the Balkans. According to Bishop Israil's 684 account of
a sacred topos for the summoning of and communion with a Supreme Deity
his mission among the Sabir in the Northern Caucasus (who are also ancestors
through symbols. It is one of the "indicators" of the G o d who, on a territory
°f the Chuvash), they offered "sacrifices to fire and water, worshipped some
organized on a sedentary basis, is worshipped in different aspects and through
different types of "behaviour". It is noteworthy in this connection that parallel
17
with temple rites, the Odrysian Orphic kings maintained on their subordinate In 1981 a pine-tree was planted on the site of the old, cut-down tree in the village
territory sanctuaries in sacred forests (in woods, on hills and in plains) where (informant Amush B. Mukhametovich, born c. 1925 in the.no longer existing village of Fardi,
RN 2005, village of Verkhnaya Balkaria, RKB). In the village of Kashkhatau, Chegem Re-
they "re-enacted under the open sky the mystery of the birth of the Son" (OoJi g'Qn, people would hang red threads on the branches of the Raubaza when it'was in bloom "to
AJI. 2002: 167). *ard off the evil eye"; this rite (as well as the offering of martenitsi/sing. martenitsa -
amulets made of white and red thread) is well-preserved among the Bulgarians to this very
da
16
Ka3ancKuu cdopnuK cmameu apxuenucKona HuKandpa, 19.09 r. Ka3aHL, quoted y; as a rule, the tree must not be cut down (informant Mariyan Pupoeva, born in the village
from TpotbHMOB 1932: 26-27. For more on the idol of Teiri cast from lead in the Nart Sagas, of Bulungu in 1932, RN 2005). For more on the Raubaza as a symbol of the World tree, see
see ^>KypTy6aeB, EonaTOB 1990. A*ypTy6aeB 1991: 212.

150 151

k
 gods of travel, as well as the moon and all creations they regarded as amazing; The village-wide rites in honour of Kiremet and Tiira are calendar-
they worshipped tall, lush oak-trees, sacrificing horses, eating and drinking pan based; they are conducted in the transitional periods of the year - after the
of the body and blood of the sacrificed animals, pouring their blood around the spring planting and after the autumn harvest in October-November, which marked
trees and hanging their heads and skins on the branches and trunks" (JiBaHOB et "the beginning of the Chuvash n e w year" (BHUiHeBCKHH 2001: 238, 251;
,;'1l al. 2000: 15-16; TLreTHeBa 1976: 32). M e c a p o m 2000: 114-115; E r o p o B H . H . 1995: 122, 136). People today still
T h e meat of the animals sacrificed to Tura as well as to Kiremet had to be remember that every village offered sacrifices in spring for fertility and a good
eaten, their bones and innards burned and the ashes blown away; only the heads crop, and "for thanksgiving" in autumn. T h e Balkar spring-autumn rituals in-
of horses were not burned - their skulls were hung on the oak-tree at the sanctu- volving sacrifice of rams or bulls are analogous in function and form. 19 In the
I! .' ary together with the skin, mane, tail and legs, facing east (BHUiHeBCKHH 2001: past, the Chuvash h a d three village-wide spring-autumn rituals in honour of
237; MnjiJiep I \ O p . 2001: 118). The Balkar still hang horse skulls on fence Tura, which were conducted at specific places outside the village. T h e first
it' 1 , poles to protect the crop from "evil eyes". A s pars pro toto, the horse's head is village-wide celebration of Tura in spring w a s acjia uyk or Man ufk ("big
J'I a symbol of the Supreme God: "Old people said ... that it is absolutely forbid- sacrifice"). T h e Chuvash believed that around the tallest, lushest and oldest tree
V den to hit the head of a horse: the horse's head is the sun" (JT,}KypTy6aeB 1991: at the kiremet there "graze the sacred animals of the G o d - gold-antlered rein-
'ill 41-42). T h e heads of horses sacrificed in the fields in honour of Kiremet are deer, winged horses, cows with silver udders... But they grow old and must b e
I1'! left in specially dug holes in the ground, while those of horses sacrificed to replaced with young animals every year." So people collected money and bought
ll ijN
•I Tura are h u n g on fence poles to protect the fields against "evil forces and evil colts, calves and kids. On the day of acna nyk they pleated different-coloured
eyes ... and to stop anyone who might think of working in the fields on a Fri- ribbons into their manes and let them loose for a year; the animals were free to
i J 1 ,i, day". On that day Tura leaves "the uppermost world ... and descends to earth. graze and roam at will, and chasing them away w a s tabooed. They were sacri-
... To avoid angering Him, the Chuvash do not light their stoves until noon or go ficed on the same day the following year. 20 About a week later the Chuvash
to the field and the forest for w o o d . . . . Non-observance of Fridays as holy days performed a "small sacrifice" or a sacrifice in the fields - Kesm nyk and 3yMap
is punished by H i m with storms and hailstorms" (BHiimeBCKHH 2001: 232, nyke- for rain. This ritual was performed on other days as well, if there w a s a
237). 18 T h e evidence indicates that these rites and concepts originated at an drought (it included carrying water to the village and pouring it on each other,
i in earlier stage in history and are probably associated with the observance of, and and a feast by the river). Old people would say then, "It seems that Tura's
taboos regarding, holy days and parameters of the G o d (fire, earth, trees). They horses have grown old, there's no one to bring water and that's why there's no
also reflect the dual/ambivalent nature of both Tura and Kiremet, understood as rain. We must give him a colt" (on the day of 3yMap nyne- E r o p o B H . H .
ir.ii benevolent and malignant - something which is typical also of other deities in 1995: 205, 212). As a rule, the supreme Tura /Teiri was always invoked if
Chuvash, Bulgarian and Balkar folk concepts. there was a drought. In some southern Chuvash villages, the annual celebrations
i1. of Tura and rainmaking rituals were conducted at one and the same site. Old
The species and colour of the sacrificial animals correspond to the rank
and essence of the deity to which they are offered. "As a rule, horses are offered women tell of sacred rAacesIkiremets at the eastern end of villages (near water
11.
to the supreme Tiira" who inhabits the uppermost world, bulls are sacrificed as and an ancient tree), where a bull as well as white geese were offered in spring
a mediator between gods and humans, and waterfowl are offered to the water and autumn - "always on a Wednesday". People in the village of Tryokh Izb
and lower world ( E r o p o B H . H . 1995: 207); horses are also offered to the also prayed for rain at the kiremet}1 Here we may also add Fedotova's account
Great Kiremet and to a group of male deities from Tura's retinue - " o n e horse of the kiremet south of the village of Saldakevo, where "the elders would change/
i for all" (BHUiHeBCKHH 2001: 236). The evidence offered by old sources about
•i 19
cyclical sacrifices is significant but incomplete ("The Supreme G o d ... de- Informant Mashtai Bashiev, born in the village of Verkhnaya Balkaria in 1927, RN
• •j mands from the Chuvash a ram, a bull every five years, and a horse every ten 2005, village of Kashkhatau, RKB.
20
II1 years" - BHHiHeBCKHH 2001: 236). People in many villages r e m e m b e r that The Balkar spring sacrificial ritual called Saban Toi (at first ploughing) is similar.
111 only a white male animal (a horse, a bull, a ram) may be sacrificed to Tiira and The bull chosen to be sacrificed the following year was kept in the stone structure at the
sanctuary where it would be sacrificed, and "fed by the whole village" for a year (Mmuiep,
Kiremet - "they [the Chuvash] consider white to b e the favourite colour of the
KoBajieBCKHfi 1983: 109; KyaaeB 1997: 114-116). The Balkar also believed that "the more
G o d " ( M e c a p o m 200: 24). the animals sacrificed, the more fruitful the year will be... and they always left part [of the
sacrificed animals] at sacred stones and trees" (Kymvie30B 2001: 71). For details on Chuvash
18
Until the adoption of Islam in Volga Bulgaria, the Chuvash holy day of the week was spring rituals (starting on the day of the spring equinox and the first thunder) with songs
Wednesday/ywn&Mn (EropoB H. YL. 2001: 254). In keeping with the old tradition, kiremets dedicated to the supreme Teiri, see Xa/r>KneBa 1988; Kymvie30Ba 2003: 13-23.
i i,1i i 21
in present-day Tatarstan are worshipped on Wednesdays. Informant Anastasiya Y. Nikandrovna, RN 2002, village of Tryokh Izb, Chuvashia.
•
11
152 153

i
build a new fence if there was a drought" (OejioTOBa). In Balkar rainmaking mass worship gradually died away in the second half of the century. For obvi-
rites (on Thursdays), after going round all the houses in the village "the little ous reasons, this subject is rarely addressed in Chuvash literature.
girls and old men [ritually pure figures] would go to the old graveyard where In the Chuvash and Balkar spring-autumn rituals, a n u m b e r of deities
they shared out the gifts they had collected. T h e men would bare their chests and are assigned the same multiple functions'in taking care of agriculture and all
pray to Teiri to send rain to earth" (A3MaTOB 1981: 152). 22 T h e Karachay passages in human life. In the spring-summer season, the Balkar prayed for rain
prayed for rain to Jangiz terek ("lonely pine-tree"), invoking in their songs "the to the thunderers Teiri, Chopa, Eliya and Shiblya ("at sanctuaries dedicated to
symbols of the supreme deity ... the tree of life and lightning" (/4^ypTy6aeB them"), w h o are viewed as "synonymous", i.e. as having the same "mythologi-
1991: 170; K y a a e B 1997: 137-138). cal function" (MajncoHflyeB 1990: 90, 91). Teiri's main double is probably
The belief-in Tura and Kiremet as protectors of the family, clan and village Chopa - called also Chopa-Eliya and Chopa-Erirei, and in some songs "hus-
is also contained in the similar prayers in sacrificial rituals (offered for well- band of the earth" - who was celebrated in spring as well as in autumn after the
being, fertility, rain, etc., always facing east). T h e enumeration of deities in end of the farming season in September-October. T h e Balkar prayed to him for
these prayers indicates that they are actually addressed to the supreme God rain andfof help in crucial-events in their lives. T h e existing evidence indicates
himself - as an entity of multiple "forms" and names which c o m e from and that this deity is supreme and polyfunctional, a "god of lightning and thunder
belong to a c o m m o n mythical core: equal in stature to Erirei, Gollu, Daule; he functions as the supreme god in the
pagan p a n t h e o n a n d as the patron g o d of agriculture [emphasis a d d e d ] "
In the prayer to Tura: O Great God, Mother of God, Thou Who Stands Before the
(MajiKOHztyeB 1990: 89, with References; KyjiaeB 1997: 48-52). T h e rituals
Face of God, Messenger, Mother of the Messenger, Protector of Flocks, Guardian...
in honour of Chopa included sacrificial ceremonies conducted outside villages,
have mercy, O Ruler of All Things... O Lord of Water and Earth, have mercy, 0
Sun... O Moon, Thou Who Rests in the Bright Uppermost World, Mother of the at a sacred stone or rock and, in some regions, in a sacred forest. In s o m e
Resting One... Bring us happiness and well-being... Fill our yards with cattle, give us Karachay incantations he is invoked as "son of the Supreme Teiri" (KapaiceTOB
fertility. Do not kill the crop of the earth with a hailstorm ... do not blow it away. Do 2001: 84; emphasis added). As "protectors of the crop" and lords of the celes-
not let magic be sent to our home ... to cast misfortune on us. May our life be happy... tial elements, Chopa, Eliya and Shiblya are actually three names of one and the
In the prayer to Kiremet: O Head of Kiremet, Mother of the Head, Thou Who same deity (JIaBpoB 1969: 108).
Stands Before the Face of Kiremet, Messenger, Gate-Opener, Servant, Cleaner, with IirChuvash, Balkar and Bulgarian traditional culture, the process of mutual
prayers for protection against misfortune, disasters, sorrow, grave disease, for health... generation and diachronic accumulation of different types of spiritual connota-
(BmuHeBCKHH 2001: 240-241, 251-253) tions of a group of deities which actually have the same semantic mythological
In the Volga Region, village-wide and family rites in honour of Kiremet origin, dates back to the period of the so-called "paganism". This process prac-
and Tura have been documented since the sixteenth century, and they are still tically continued with the imposition o f the new/charismatic official state reli-
well-remembered by elderly villagers. At the same time, this tradition has un- gions, which inherited many traits of the old deities. In Bulgarian folk rituals on
dergone serious changes in several stages over the centuries, as a result of the Balkans, ritual concepts and figures from the old high religion have been
which the original function and symbolic meaning of a number of ritual compo- preserved in the form of various Christian saints and their celebration. T h e
nents have been forgotten and are no longer practised. Scholars think that after mutual influence between paganism and Christianity led to the emergence of so-
the adoption ofjEhristianity (in the eighteenth century), the three spring/autumn called "twin" pairs and trios of saints w h o have inherited ancient pagan con-
rituals in honour of Tura merged into one. N.A. Aleksandrov (H. A . AneK- cepts. Scientists call this phenomenon and type of folklorized personages "do-
caHflpoB 1899: 22-23) is wrong in assuming that "the Chuvash stopped fearing mestic/folk Christianity" (TIonoB P . 1991: 34). T h e rituals in honour of the
their evil spirits - Keremets after the Russians burned down their sacred woods pairs of Christian saints in Bulgarian folk traditions as well as the village-wide
orkeremets [emphasis added]".. According to my informants, the next drastic celebrations of the Supreme God and his hypostases among the Chuvash and the
stage of changes was in the first half of the twentieth century, when the ideology Balkar organize calendar time in t w o half-years: spring-summer and autumn-
of c o m m u n i s m and the Soviet Union persecuted religion in any form. In this winter.
period the Bolsheviks burned down village sanctuaries en masse, and their The concepts of the Supreme Tura/Teiri, his social tasks and functions
have distinct equivalents in the figure and worship of sveti Nikola Z i m e n a n d
Leten or Winter and Summer Saint Nikola (Nicholas) among the Bulgarians.
22 Similarly to other saints, he has two eponymous age dimensions/hypostases, a
In terms of ritual acts and behaviour, accessories, figures, etc., Balkar and Bulgarian
rainmaking rites are variants of one and the same prototype. Winter and a S u m m e r one, which "personify the two opposite sides of a single

154 155

m
T|V

whole"; the former is a symbol of winter, death, old age, earth and water; the designation of His anthropomorphic "image". This mythical prototype may un-
latter of summer, life, youth, the sky and solar fire. The -former is a white-haired derlie the Bulgarian family rites in the days of Winter Saint Nikola which in-
Ii'! old man, and the latter "a supernatural hero" who engages in "fierce battles clude nocturnal village rounds made by old men only; their role has been de-
with dragons and dragonesses ... has wings and can fly across seas and moun- fined as "priestly" (ITonoB 1991: 41, 43).
lllll
tains" and, in folksongs, "drinks from a gold c u p " (MapHHOB 1914: 528,531). According to observations from the early nineteenth century, "in the old
In the Volga Region and the Northern Caucasus, the "forms" of Tura/Teiri are Chuvash way of life, the functions of priests were performed by the elders, old
not named as young and old, winter and summer. The idea of the Supreme God men who knew the prayers j and subtleties of rituals" (BnuiHeBCKHH 2001: 249-
as personifying two opposite but complementary principles is manifested in the 250). The elders also determined the days of Chuvash village-wide keremets,
cyclic calendar celebrations, in the contents of the father/son pairs (Tiira/ and the prayers during the ritual were pronounced by the most respected elder
"i|,l
Kiremet, Teiri/Chopa), which also m a k e them opposite in terms of age, etc. At ("head/leader of the sacrifice"). In the mid-twentieth century, as L. Vikar and G.
the same time, the predominant image of the Supreme God is that of a white- Bereczki (1971: 67) found during their expeditions among the Cheremis, there
haired old man. In Balkar concepts, he is reproduced in a n u m b e r of function- were still "pagan priests - kart" (leaders of rituals and sacrificial ceremonies,
ally and semantically similar figures with distinctive "supreme" attributes and who performed prayer songs during the ceremony), who were invariably old
accessories. For example, the Balkar god of hunting, Apsati, is "an old man people. A m o n g the Udmurt too, family sanctuaries were tended by old people
with a long grey beard in snow-white clothes; from his waist hangs a long gold who, alone, had the right to touch the sacred objects and images ("the w o o d
dagger. ... T h e ties on his feet are of silver, and on his hand he has a ring sculptures of patron deities"). This duty was passed on from father to son or to
I
depicting the supreme god Teiri." Similarly, Golu, the god of fertility celebrated the closest relative (IHyTOBa 2001: 238). In this connection, I will quote
on the day of the spring equinox, is represented in folksongs as "a good, light Pentikainen (2001b: 506), who writes that "Mari, Mordvin, U d m u r t . . . seem to
and b r i g h t . . . white-bearded old man in a gold coat. H e holds a sickle in one have totally different religious experts than those with shamanic skills, e.g. di-
hand and a sheaf of wheat in the other." In the Nart myths, Eliya the thunderer is viners, prophets or sacrifice priests". T h e priestly functions of old m e n / w o m e n
also "a handsome white-bearded old man flying above the clouds and casting in rituals is traditional in the folklore of different peoples from the Volga Re-
thunderbolts" (MajiKOH^yeB 1990: 90). H e appears "on the peak of the highest gion, the Caucasus, and the Balkans. Everywhere this type of figures have a
mountain ... and is huge in size ... when he gallops on his horse there is the calling and contact from on high as the source of their extraordinary powers
sound of thunder" (JIaBpoB 1969: 108, with References; emphasis added). In (see chapter "On VeshterstvonNitchcraft and Shamanhood: Differences and
i'i.I'I Bulgarian and Chuvash concepts, God is "an old man with a long white beard Possible Parallels").
who looks like a human in every way ... very good ... gentle ... Grandfather (All information about Saint Nikola below is from I I o n o B P. 1991: 25-
Jill God still descends to earth in the form of an old m a p " (MapHHOB 1914: 166- 57.) Both the Winter and Summer Saint Nikola are celebrated as a patron saint
167); Tura, too, is an old man who "descends to earth among people, walks in of the family and clan with village-wide rituals involving the sacrifice of a
the fields, sometimes also during the harvest" ( K H 3 2001: 409). This old God calf/bull at consecrated or sacred places with-oak-trees and springs. T h e saint
is represented also in Bulgarian folksongs, especially in Bulgarian Christmas is venerated as an old man who helps young people to get married; similarly to
songs where the designations of Saint Nikola as chief saint and god are seman- Chuvash girls making offerings to Kiremet before their marriage, Bulgarian
tically identical: "a white-haired old man with a white beard", "the oldest 'girls of marriageable age ... always go to church on Nikulden [Saint Nikola's
saint, Saint N i k o l a " ( H T I C C JN° 540, C H E JNQ 68; emphasis added); "chief D a y ] . . . leaving flowers and offerings to Saint Nikola so that he will help them
saint, Saint N i k o l a " ( C 6 H Y 3 , 1 8 9 0 : 7, JN° 7; C 6 H Y 44, 1949: 427, JN° 840); to get married". The Winter Nikulden is "a turning point in the annual cycle",
"O God, Saint Nikola" (TB, JY° 1460; C E H Y 3 , 1 8 9 0 : 24); in lazarka chants in and as ruler of the winter elements Saint Nikola is also associated with the
III the Pirot area: "pray to God Nikola and Saint Iliya [Elijah]'... O God, Saint first snow (for more on the first snow "at Teiri's will" among the Balkar, see
Giorgio ... and you, Grandfather Iliya" (KapaBenoB 1940: 214-215; emphasis A*ypTy6aeB 1991: 170-171). 23 Saint Nikola belongs to the group of hail-
added). Also telling in this respect are the Bulgarian narratives about the
theophany of the moon as an old man (ByKa/iHHOB 1896: 167-168, from the
23
Sofia area; see chapter "On VeshterstvolWitchcrait and Shamanhood: Differ- Similarly to the Winter and Summer Saint Nikola, typical "twin" semantic opposi-
ences and Possible Parallels"). In the sphere of these concepts, old age is a hons {life/death, summer/winter, young/old, planting/harvesting, etc.) are contained in
'he pair Saint Dimitar (Demetrius) - Saint Georgi (George). Saint Dimitar, too, is a patron
metaphor for power and supremacy, for the eternal, independent position saint of winter, cold, and snow; around Dimitrovden (Saint Dimitar's Day), the Bulgarians
of God, and can be viewed as a category of a theological type. It is also a Sa
y that "Grandfather Dimitar shakes his long white beard and the first snow pours out of it"
(flonoBP. 1991: 10).

156 157

k
 storm saints and is akin to Saint Iliya (a successor of the pagan sky gods of internal stratification of the Universe, the cosmic props transcending and link-
thunder and rain: Zeus, Perun, Tangra, Thor); this aspect is manifested in the ing the different levels (the World tree, mountains), the "being" of the living and
spring-summer village-wide festivals and rituals involving sacrifice in his honour the dead in parallel worlds and different dimensions, the rainbow as a bound-
- for protection of the crops from storms, in, rainmaking rites, in ritual rounds of ary between the worlds and a metaphor for god, etc.:
i imi|i the fields for rain.
Saint Nikola is ruler of water/the sea. H e has a distinct parallel in the • Chuvash: In Chuvash mytho-narratives the universe consists of seven floor's -
Balkar concepts and songs about "the sea as the realm" of C h o p a (KyflaeB three are above the earth, the fourth is the earth itself, and the other three below the
ii
earth... The middle world is a quadrangular or octagonal space at the centre of which is
1997: 49, with References) who is equal in functions, and contents to Teiri, as
the mountain Ama Tu, with the World tree growing on the peak of the mountain... In
\M well as in the designation and mytho-narratives of teiri as sea and as sky. The
some variants, the upper and the lower worlds are seven-tiered. "These concepts have
semantic unity of the sky/SupremeGod/sun-sea.seouence is also implicit in the evolved from the initial three-tier model of the world. ... The Supreme Tura, together
i<i >il Balkar concept of the sun, which descends into the sea after sunset (/F^ypTyGaeB with his retinue, resides in a gold palace on a high mountain in the seventh sky" (EropoB
1991: 196), in the Chuvash concept of the sun which bathes in the sea at night H. H. 1995: 116-117; 134). In Chuvash creation legends, when the Earth and the Sky
Hi ( E r o p o B H . H . 1995:119), in the Bulgarian concept that "the sun is a god ... in separated after the universal deluge, "the sky took half of that which was on the surface
the morning it comes out of the sea, bathed" (TeoprHeBa 1983:17),. as well as of the earth [mountains, water, fire, trees, etc.] ... and turned them upside down, with
in the R o m a n i a n belief that S a i n t N i k o l a "governs the sun" (TIonoB 1991: 30, branches towards the Earth." (TpotpHMOB 1993: 101) After death the souls of righ-
with References). In the Nart creation myth it is precisely Teiri the Sun who teous people go to the other world by way of the rainbow created by God. (Mecapom
ij calms the earthquake and the waves of the sea by driving mountains into the 2000: 78)
'i'' earth "like a w e d g e " (HapTbi 1994: 302). T h e symbolic meaning of the sea as • Balkar: The universe is like a giant egg and consists of three floors (ion Kham);
well as the function of the khan/kan as high priest in the ancient Bulgar religion on each there is life, a moon, a sun, stars ... people, beasts, animals, dragons... Across
is recorded indirectly by two Byzantine chroniclers describing the actions of the middle of each of the three worlds flows the Middle River (Apa cyy), which divides
Khan K r u m (Danubian Bulgaria) during the siege of Constantinople in 813: them into worlds of the living and worlds of the dead. Thus, there are six worlds in all
(three of the dead and three of the living).24 The boundary between the worlds of the
"Krum offered,sacrifices after his custom outside the Golden Gate, sacrificing
living and the worlds of the dead is the rainbow (meiipu Khbuibin - celestial, divine sword;
men and m a n y cattle. On the seashore, he wet his feet, poured sea water on
oican Khbuibin - sword of life) which vertically divides the three worlds. They say that those
himself and besprinkled his troops, who acclaimed him [emphasis added]." who jump over the rainbow will change their sex ... because in the world of the dead
* 4 Evidence that K r u m had "offered sacrifices to the sea" is also contained in an everything is in opposite form.... At the centre of each of the three worlds rises the world
ancient Bulgar stone inscription (N° 3) (Scriptor incertus, 3 4 2 , 1 - 1 5 = H3BopH mountain (eternal, gold).... Parallelly, the Balkar and Karachay imagine the Cosmos as a
VIII, 20; Theoph., 5 0 3 , 4 - 1 4 = H3BopH VI, 20; - from EemeBJineB 1981: 85). I giant tree (Gold Willow/,4;zm&w/ Tan); when someone is bom a new leaf sprouts on the
think that the routine interpretation of K r u m ' s actions as a "ritual of purifica- tree and falls when they die. (fl>KypTy6aeB 1991: 180-184; 140, 222)
tion" (in EeuieBJiHeB) is one-sided and incorrect. In my opinion, this account • Bulgarians: The sky consists of [vertically] attached vaults of heaven (town of
represents one of the ways in which the kan entered into contact with the Su- Troyan). The earth is attached with a nail to the lowest, the first sky. This sky is ruled
preme G o d and received strength from on high - through one of His cosmogonic by Saint Iliya. God lives in the highest sky. The place where the souls of the dead go to
manifestations, i.e. water/sea. is in the sky (Teteven area)... God ... lives in the seventh, highest sky... hell is also in
the sky, but lower than heaven... OTConoB P. 1999: 269, 290, 291; emphasis added)
The sky ... is a thick hard crust and it has seven folds ... the stars are attached to
the lowest fold ... the soul [after death] passes first through a deserted and dark field,
The ancient type of religiosity and the unity of traditional ritual thinking in then through a thorny field, and reaches a wide and deep river which is the boundary
the territories under review here are indicated also by the contents of a ritual between this and the other world. The river is crossed by boat, and the soul then
sphere known to be highly conservative - namely, of-funeral a n d memorial passes through a gate ("guard post") on the opposite bank. ... Heaven is on the first
rites. The c o m m o n worldview concepts and symbols of passage are preserved fold of the sky, the angels and saints are above, on the upper folds, and God is at the
to
in acts and ritual practices, in material and spatial parameters and their mean- P- ... When someone dies, their soul... goes to the sky... (MapHHOB 1914: 7,224,
• |i| m ings, in the specific anthropomorphic form of temporary and permanent tomb- 232-234; emphasis added)
stones and their analogous forms, etc. The concepts of afterlife (or the extension
of life after physical death) and the possible places of "residence" in the after-
24
life are rooted in a classical conception of the Universe and its Order common Here one may recall the Bulgarian concept of "the six hero-brothers who divided
to the Bulgarians, Chuvash, Karachay and Balkar: the three-tier structure and 'nesky, the earth and the world between themselves" (MapHHOB 1914: 518; emphasis added).

158 159
llHl
*
k
 The concepts of the stratification of the Universe probably underlie the [in the family]"; for evidence of the same practice in the nineteenth century, see
conceptions about the stage-by-stage passage of the dead to the otherworld. Mecapom 2000: 204). 2 6
This passage is facilitated by the large spring-autumn memorial celebrations
And we take the person home [i.e. the yuba, after it is made in the forest], we lay out
which, too, occur in the course of linear time by the logic of the well-known
the yuba on the bed [Fig. 42] and he lies there while we eat. ... When the yuba is carried
three-tier model. O n e of the latter's manifestations among the Chuvash are the everybody weeps ... as if it were a real person. ... And someone must sit by its side, we
three major rites called breakfast, lunch, and supper of the dead - as meta- never leave it alone; it must be guarded by a human, not by shaitans The yuba is carried
phors for the beginning, middle and end of a cycle. Similarly to the three major out of the house [to the graveyard] like a person The relatives sit in the cart... and they
celebrations of the Supreme Tura, they are performed in spring and autumn must have a [small] accordion.... We arrive at the graveyard as if we are carrying a person.
(two in spring and one in autumn), and are "obligatory" in the first three years ... The yuba lies in the cart wrapped in a blanket. We put a cap on it if it is a man, and tie a
after death ( K H 3 : 394): kerchief on it if it is a woman At sunrise in the morning [on the next day]... this is the
last [thing we do] for the yuba - we go to the river and see the person's spirit off to the other
The first time we summon home [literally "into the family"] the dead from the world; we light a fire and walk round it in circles, saying "Go away in peace, don't come
other world, this is breakfast/mongtm for them ... on.the Thursday after the Christian back to us... when need be, we'll call you; go away." We believe that hehas gone away
Easter. The second time we invite them to lunch [on the day of the Holy Trinity]. ... when the fire bums out. Then the accordion plays a wedding melody and we leave to the
We summon them home for the third time in the autumn - in October, in the month of sound of the music. [A wedding melody] so that the person will marry in the other world,
kerhiz ra yuba. ... Then we offer them supper, wash them in the bathroom and send and not take someone from this world They immediately start singing a wedding song,
them back to the graveyard. ... We invite them three times a year and must sacrifice and then dance a little ... so that [the dead person] will have a bit of everything in the other
something ... if we don't do this, they will punish us. ... Everything is done on a world, and we go home... (Informants Roza N. Chentaeva and Vera P. Mikhailova, RN
Thursday... (Informant Vera P. Mikhailova, RN August 2002, village of Novoe August 2002, village of Novoe Aksubaevo, Tatarstan)
Aksubaevo, Tatarstan)
The anthropomorphic form of the monuments, the distinctive male and fe-
As a classical period of "decline", autumn closes the annual cycle of com- male form of the upper part and their personification (representedby elements of
memorations. In the late folk tradition,of the Bulgarians, the chthonic essence of the traditional costume, images of personal belongings and even of musical instru-
frill autumn rituals is manifested in and through the contents of particular saints (Saint ments, etc.) also attest to the existence of an identical symbolic system among the
11: ii) Nikola, Saint Dimitar, Archangel Mihail/Michael, Saint Petka/Petko), w h o have Bulgarians and the Chuvash. 27 When it is placed on the grave, the yupa is fitted out
retained many pre-Christian elements associated with death, darkness and win- with a cap if it is a man and with a kerchief if it is a woman. An analogous act of
ter, and are celebrated with memorial feasts in the October-November period "personification" revealing the unity of ritual representations and concepts of pas-
(TJonoBP. 1 9 9 1 : 1 0 , 1 1 , 1 2 6 - 1 4 5 ) . By the old Chuvash calendar, autumn com- sage from this to the other world is found in Vishnevskiy's unique accounts from the
memorations are in the month of yupa25 (which once meant memorial, com- nineteenth century (BHIUHCBCKHH 2001:237) about the sacrifice of animals to Tiira.
memoration - K 4 3 2001: 509-510), which is in the October-November pe- and Kiremet, where the animal had to face east and wear a cap. Anthropomorphic
riod. That is when the Chuvash place on the graves of their recently deceased images with elements of traditional costume, personal belongings, solar sym-
relatives the so-called yupa - permanent tombstones in the form of wooden bols, representations of limbs (arms and legs) and even of horsemen, etc. are
sculptures, which are placed at full moon, when the moon begins to wane. The also found on many tombstones in the Northern Caucasus dating from the time
m o n u m e n t s are m a d e by the relatives of the dead person - of oak, with a flat after the adoption of Islam, including from the present day (Fig. 43, 44). 2 8 A
upper-part for men, and of lime, with a curved upper part for w o m e n (Fig. 36,
3 7 , 3 8 , 3 9 , 4 0 , 4 1 ) . T h e Chuvash regard the yupa as a stylized representation of
the person and treat it as a real dead person, with his or her unique individual- 26
The Bulgarians (in the Mount Pirin area) have the same belief about the wooden cross
I m PI
„B
m ity; that is probably also why they will never bury more than one person in the Placed on the graves of the dead: "After it rots away it must not be replaced with a new one,
for
same grave, and leave the monument until it falls and rots away naturally ("Once if it is someone else will die too" (TeoprneBa 1980: 414).
27
placed, the yupa is never renewed. If you repair it there will be-another death For Bulgarian examples from the nineteenth century, see EHHeB-Bnflio 1994: Na
~57, 258; for anthropomorphic monuments from the thirteenth-seventeenth centuries
from different regions, see BaicapejiCKH 1990: N° 36-38, p. 132; later monuments in
•ttioeeHOBa 1996: N° 8, 61a, 62a, 65, 144, 151, 202.
28
For descriptions and photos of such images, see Ky3H~eiiOBa 1982. According to her
25
Written as lond in Chuvash (lit. pillar, column), pronounced yuba/yupa (KH3 2001: observations, the majority of anthropomorphic monuments in the Caucasus are male. For stelae
Wl
509). Both spelling variants are used in academic literature. th figures of humans, animals and birds in Chechnya, see http://www.chechnyafree.ru/article
ii , II M"
ill 161
160
link
L
 PF

specific feature of the Balkar Khulam-Bezengi tombstones is the depression review here. F o r example, according to Kakhovskiy (KaxoBCKHii), who con-
carved in the middle of their upper part, which "looks like a cup and was firms that the funeral/burial traditions of the Volga Bulgars have been preserved
probably designed for some kind of ritual libations" (Ky3HeitOBa 1982, Fig. among the Chuvash, 3 0 the Bulgar " p r e - M u s l i m funeral rite belongs to the an-
76). Kuznetsova obviously does not know the Bulgarian tombstones and the cient Turkic tradition". Analyzing Ibn Fadjan's accounts of the Volga Bulgars,
Chuvash yupa, all of which have a small hole on the top - "so that the birds can he compares them mechanically to similar elements from vast territories and to
drink water"; during memorials, a candle is placed and lit there. the tradition of the Middle Asian Turkic-speaking peoples (such as the sym-
Essentially similar to the rituals involving yupa (which largely repeat the bolic representation of the deceased in full dress and armour, the erection of
actual funeral and burial of the dead) as well as to the identification of the yupa poles or pillars, "opposite" acts owing to the concepts of the reversed order in
'J '
with the deceased person, is the second, "true" funeral/burial - the so-called the otherworld, etc.). Such indiscriminate, large-scale comparisons cannot but
razkopvane or, literally, "excavation" - among the Bulgarians. It is the final lead to the conclusion that "the wooden poles" erected on Chuvash graves (a
"impetus" towards the ideal state of immortality, and scholars regard it as "the practice inherited from the Bulgars) likewise belong to the "Turkic ritual" - as
final stage of funeral/burial rites" (JIo3aHOBa 1991: 56). 29 Depending on the a later form of "the initial practice of sticking a spear". The anthropomorphic
local tradition, it was commonly performed in the third, fourth or seventh year features of Caucasian Muslim monuments (wooden and stone) are interpreted in
after death, and in the southwestern Bulgarian lands on a Saturday around the same way by Kuznetsova (Ky3HeuoBa 1982) - as "secondarily-imposed
Dimitrovden (Saint Dimitar's/Demetrius's Day), in November, very rarely in Turkic forms coming from the Kuman". Because the Chuvash had "obviously
spring (KaycuMaH H . , J\. KayrpMaH 1988: 38). This ritual was known in the inherited the ancient Bulgar forms" (and well-nigh patented them perhaps?),
past to the other Balkan peoples as well, and there are different opinions as to with respect to the Balkar monuments it was supposedly impossible to speak of
its origin. The concepts of the gradual passage of the dead from this to the other "a direct genetic link with the ancient Bulgar ones ... but there is every reason
world (including the shedding of the flesh) go back to the Indo-Iranian ethno- to assume that the.ancient Turkic prototypes have played their role in the forma-
11 '
cultural community, from where they passed into Zoroastrianism (EOHC 2003: tion of the main Balkar and Karachay types of stone monuments/stelae".
32-36). Another well-known substratum of this ancient religiosity is the con- Vakarelski (BaKapencKH 1990: 135) who, too, compares features indiscrimi-
cept of the divider-bridge, which the Chuvash build as a real bridge (or repair nately, briefly mentions the Chuvash "wooden statues" which "are essentially
the old one) precisely on the day of the yupa even today (for a detailed descrip- conceptually identical to those 'babas' [he probably has in mind the stone babas]
tion, see CajiMHH 2003: 102-105, with References). The contents of this ritual and the tombstones of the Ottoman Turks". Smirnov is of an entirely different
practice as well as its distinctive Bulgarian parallels (which I will not discuss opinion: "The custom of placing a tombstone in the form of a column called
here) are part of the subject concerning the Indo-Iranian substratum and pro- yupa, which is genetically related to the stone babas, also links the Chuvash to
cesses of synthesis in the traditional ritual system and culture of the Bulgarians, the Bulgars. The stone babas are well-known in the steppes of southeastern
Chuvash, and other peoples. Such phenomena call into question the widely ac- Europe from the Scytho-Sarmatian age. They were especially popular in the age
cepted views about the origin of these peoples, and especially the Bulgars = of the Khazar Khaganate among the Sarmatians and Alans, to which the Bulgars
Turks scheme which is "taken for granted" by many scholars. The widespread belong as well. The lack of stone as a building material in the Middle Volga
views as to the existence of "ancient Turkic prototypes", expounded in many Region [?] compelled the Bulgars to make such monuments of wood" (CMHPHOB
Tatar and Russian-language studies, are applied indiscriminately to all Bulgar 1951: 85).
finds, even a priori. This is directly relevant to the monuments and rituals under Regarding the grave stone monuments erected to feudal lords in the North-
I ll ern Caucasus, Kuznetsova (Ky3HeiiOBa 1982) writes the following: "The com-
mon folk had to make do with the cheaper [?] tombstones made of w o o d . " As
29
(From Kay<bMaH H., J\. KaydpMaH 1988: 38; BaKapejicioi 1990: 175-176; strange as it might sound to some, wood is a luxury in many parts of the North-
JIo3aHOBa 1991: 52-57) The relatives of the deceased would open the graye, remove the ern Caucasus, and this environmental problem is not a recent one. Actually, the
bones, wash them with wine, basil and olive oil, and place them in a special box or sack.
choice of a particular material in traditional culture is determined by inherited
putting a cap on the skull of a man and a kerchief on the skull of a woman. In the different
villages, the bones were kept overnight in the house of the relatives or in the local church and concepts and beliefs, and not by the economic knowledge of observers... An-
reburied on the next day, after one week or after forty days - in the same grave or, in a com-
mon ossuary (if there was one in the village). The ritual acts in the second funeral/burial wefe
identical to the main ones in the first. According to my observations, in some villages ifl 30
Based on evidence from the ancient Bulgar necropolises at Tegesh and Bilyar; ibid.,
r
Southwestern Bulgaria this ritual was practised until the end of the 1970s (as I was told v) ° "the pagan beliefs of the Bulgars" which were preserved in the Muslim necropolises of
informants in the Razlog area in 1984). " e local population until the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.

162 163

i I
 other piece of information offered by the same author - about "more archaic as I would like to return to the subject of the otherworld and look at some
a form, stone stelae 'clad' in wooden cases [emphasis added] carved out of a specific forms of the belief that life continues after death (in another dimension)
whole-tree trunk" (in o l d Karachay and North Ossetian cemeteries) - has an as manifested i n two parallel folk concepts: the concept that life continues at
important implication, pointing to the tree/wood as one of the ancient symbols the graveyard and the concept of the passage of the h u m a n soul to God/"the
of the Supreme God. Probably this archetype determines his last, "supreme upper world". Among the Bulgarians and the Chuvash, these two possible "paths"
say" in/on the monuments in question. represent the horizontal and vertical cycle of life. In the ancient Asian doc-
The main problem in such texts comes from the conflicting positions and fail- trines, the notions of the individual eternal soul which resides in a parallel
ure to recognize that a simplistic, one-sided definition of the components and espe- world are found in the concept of anima mundi = Soul of the World (a force or
cially of their origin is counter-productive and cannot lead to adequate analysis. spirit that exists in everything and everywhere, and organizes the elements of
Incidentally, the lovers of "pure cultures" are irrelevant to my study. As regards the" the universe). As a rule, stratified sedentary communities believe that the eter-
widespread view about the Turkic origins and ethno-cultural identity of the Bulgars, nal spirit comes from and goes to the Supreme God.
I would like to note that the Turkic peoples (before and after the formation of the According to accounts from the seventeenth century, the Chuvash believed
khaganates) accumulated a significant Iranian substratum which they, in their turn, that the dead went on living in the otherworld in the same way as they had lived
spread in their zones of influence. It is also well-known that the Persian building in this world: "They do not believe in the resurrection of the dead or in a new
traditions and spiritual values had an enormous influence on the Arabs and Turks. life after life on earth" (OjieapHH 2001: 80); this belief was described in more
After the third century, vast territories in Middle Asia were "part of Sassanid Per- detail by Meszaros in 1909: "I observed the old heritage in purest form in the
sia, and before that they were part of Partha, where 'pan-Iranian' cultural elements region of the Vompukas. ... According to old people, the otherworld is inside
were predominant" (Ho6aHOB 2006:25, with References). Precisely Middle Asia the earth and there is no heaven or hell. The dead remain invisible to us and go
was one of the active directions of their spread into the Volga Region. And when on living as they had lived in this world... at the graveyard, around their mound,
speaking of an "ancient Turkic Asian tradition" one ought to set it in the wider together with the other dead people from the village" (Mecapoin 2000: 198; em-
context of a culture that was synthesized in its turn. One scholar who insists espe- phasis added). The accounts about the beliefs of the Bulgarians on the Balkans are
cially on the connection of the "Bulgaro-Suvar" and Volga Bulgars with the Indo- analogous: "The actual state of death ... is imagined as another form of life"
Iranian and Iranian cultural circle and on the influence of Zoroastrianism on them is (BaxapejicKH 1990:24; emphasis added); "[T]he afterlife is nothing but a continu-
A. A. Trofimov, a prominent Chuvash scholar of sculptural forms (including tomb- ation of this life.... The s o u l . . . retains the same form, the same image as the dead
stones) and the tradition related to them. Analyzing the common features of Chuvash body... the same clothes... and will remain with them forever.... In the otherworld,
monuments and the monuments of the Danubian Bulgars, of "the Proto-Bulgarians in too, the dead lived in groups, in villages, as they had on earth.... Whether there is
the Northern and Western Black Sea region and the early Bulgars on the Volga" as hell, suffering - no one can tell me" (MapHHOB 1984: 545-547; emphasis added);
well as their roots in the Ancient East, in Iran and Middle Asia (in the northern "[T]he land, the meadows, the forest, the graveyard are guarded by individual good
regions of Kush Baktria), Trofimov entirely rejects the thesis of the kinship between spirits ... the souls of long dead notable, great and righteous fellow-villagers"
the Bulgars and the Turks: ' T h e sculptural art of the ancient Turks, Kimaks, Kumaks, (MapHHOB 1914: 242-243; emphasis added). These concepts are represented also
which was born in the sixth-seventh centuries in Mongolia and the region of the in the well-known tradition of burying the dead with their personal and essential
Altai Mountains ... belongs to an entirely different culture. The parallels observed belongings (musicians were buried with their musical instruments); the Chuvash
between the ancient Turkic sculptural forms and the Chuvash obviously come from would leave in the grave of a dead person his or her personal belongings and
pan-Scythian and proto-Turkic canonic forms, and some of them also from the Sogdian tools, as well as wine — "so that they w o n ' t be idle and bored in the otherworld"
cultural stratum" (TpodpHMOB- 1993b: 153-165). 31 There are similar views about (BHUiHeBCKHH 2001: 241).
the ancient Bulgarian shrines/temples on the Balkans (in Danubian Bulgaria's capi-
Another typical constructive expression of the belief that life continues after
,!• tals of Pliska and Preslav) which are in the form of rectangles or squares inscribed
death are the wooden structures erected on graves - the so-called chartak32 - which
within each other. "Both types have numerous parallels in Parthian and Irano-Sassanid
culture" (HOGUHOB 2006:29).
32
According to Chobanov (Mo6aHOB 2006: 32), who cites Klaus Schippman, this is
he name of the rectangular Sassanid temple (ChaharTags in Schippman); ibid., for more on
31
the Iranian prototypes of Bulgarian cult buildings on the Balkans. According to Trofimov
Ibid., p. 17 - for more on the monuments from the early period of Volga Bulgan3 ttpocbiiMOB 1993b: 163, 167, 169) the so-called "grave hut" (grobna kushtichkd) in north-
(before the adoption of Islam) as "established forms formed precisely ... in the region of the astern Bulgaria (similar structures depicted in EHHCB-BUJIIO JN"° 200, 664) is analogous to
Northern Black Sea and the Northern Caucasus". ttle
Chuvash chartak.

164 165

I k
 w
I

II 1 can be seen in some villages in Southern Chuvashia to this very day (Fig. 45). most graveyards in Northeastern Bulgaria" - BaicapejicKH 1990: 140; empha-
The storyline about the construction of a house-grave is well known also from sis added). Similar evidence about a "graveyard monument" as a symbol of the
Bulgarian folksongs and, furthermore, "in many parts [of Bulgaria]; graves are otherworldly community is also offered by Lyubenova: "[This monument] marks
called the house or home of the d e a d " (BaicapejicKH 1977: 494; emphasis the spot called trapeza [festive table] where commemorations of the dead from
added; Fig. 46). the whole graveyard, accompanied with feasts, are organized. It is usually larger
One of the most revealing personifications of the Chuvash belief that "life" and more richly decorated than the other tombstones. Not infrequently, it is
continues at the graveyard is the so-called head of the graveyard (Chuvash dedicated to a particular saint. The front surfaces ... are filled with conjuring
* il caea nyce, Macap nyce, caed nog). This "position" is assigned to the first signs, sacred formulas, a visual representation of the sainf, and names of the
ill person buried in the graveyard, as a rule "a wise, universally respected old dead" (JIio6eHOBa 1996: 141, 161, with References; emphasis added). 3 5
uii| man" w h o m all the dead obey. The figure was well-preserved during m y 2002 The caea nyce has functional equivalents also in the Bulgarian concepts of
field study too, except that in some villages the person who became the head of Archangel Michael as a "soul-taker" or "soul-extractor" (Bulg. dushovadnik/
Ii
ii'iiiii the graveyard was the first person to be buried there, irrespective of gender or vadidoushnik, lit. "soul-extractor"/"extractor of souls") who "orders death"
age. T h e advent of death itself is associated with the juacap nyce- it is he who (BaicapejicKH 1990: 27), takes the souls of people and is "celebrated in honour
i
"takes the souls of those coming after him"; he goes (lit. "rises from the grave") of death ... so that he will extract the soul more easily", i.e. less painfully
11
to the dying person, steps forward with his big knife, slits the person's throat (MapHHOB 1914: 51.8). The figure of "sveti Rangel" (Archangel Michael) is
and carries off his or her soul. The graveyard "is his land"; the grave-diggers based on an earlier substratum of folk concepts, probably of the man who ex-
must ask him for a place to bury the newly departed, offering him a piece of tracts souls. Like the gaea nyge, Archangel Michael is a "man with a sword in
bread and cheese on the site of the new grave and praying, " O Elder [lit. his hand" or "elsewhere this is done by 'a man with the sabre of Saint Archan-
" c r a p o c T h KJiafl6Htia" - juacap nygjidxe], give us land!" ( M e c a p o m 2000: gel'" (BaKapejiCKH 1990: 27, referring to the town of Troyan, with Refer-
Hull 4 6 , 2 0 1 ) . During memorials, he is the first to be offered the hops drink cdpd and ences). Actually, one of the main "tasks" of these isomorphic "soul-extractors"
they "pray for permission" to light a fire, "to play and dance after the erection of is to preserve the traditional community in toto when it passes over to and
lii a new yupa" (TpocpHMOB 1993b: 146,179). The Macap ny ge practically holds resides in the otherworld ("The dead lived in the otherworld, too, in groups, in
I * the position of a ruler, manifested also by his old age as a mythical metaphor villages as they did in this world" - MapHHOB 1984: 547-54; similarly in
111
for supremacy and power. 33 A number of concepts and ritual acts of the Bulgar- Genchev about northeastern Bulgaria - TeHHeB 1985: 193). The occasional
Hill
ians point to a similar invisible figure - for example, the custom of burning Christian burials which I saw in some graveyards of non-Christian Chuvash
tin were explained to me as follows: it is precisely the graveyard that reunites
incense and pouring wine on the ground before digging a new grave, which is
•fill generally interpreted as an act of offering, or purchase. 3 4 According to field families and clans, therefore many of the officially baptized Chuvash wanted to
fiJi research findings reported by Anna Shtarbanova (2002), in the village of Varvara be buried according to "the old tradition".
tii(i| near Pazardjik (South Central Bulgaria) the custom was to wait for an unmar-
iiiilll ried young man to die in order to start a new graveyard. Among the Chuvash, the Ope especially .important aspect of the Supreme God, manifested in the
tombstone of the caea nygeis taller than the others and it is usually at the centre cosmogonic concepts and at different ritual levels in the territories under re-
of the graveyard; this is the only yupa which the living replace with a new one view here, is his connection with the dead and the ancestors. M a n y scholars
"when the old one rots away" (TpotpHMOB 1993b: 146). Typologically and to think that the folk concept of "going to G o d " and especially that of going to
some extent constructively similar is the monument at the centre of Bulgarian some sort of hell or heaven is a later development and that it emerged under the
graveyards, from where "they would start to bury" the dead ("a large stone 'nfluence of some charismatic religion (Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam...).
pillar called menhir or a sculpted stone cross usually called 'votive cross'. ••• hi an earlier epoch, however, the notion that everyone would simply "go to
liitiil
These ... are most often of the same type as the earlier grave crosses but differ God" was non-existent, whereas the idea of the fusion of the spiritual substance
lr
from them in that they are significantly larger in size. ... Such are found in > humans with the supreme deity goes back to the ancient Indo-Iranian beliefs,
lijlhl
in the mediaeval state formations, this direction of passage after physical death
• .)f
llpilll 33 35
This precedent is described in ancient Sanskrit texts - the first king on earth, who was Kuznetsova (Ky3HeuoBa 1982) mentions - unfortunately, without providing more
ll|ll!lll||
also the first human to die, became the god of the underworld kingdom (EOHC 2003: 32). 'nfbrrnation - a "tombstone of the village elder", a stela of an enviable, unusual height (two
34
li'lliill This is also known to the Ukrainians: "money is given to the dead to purchase a place •fietres high and seventy centimetres wide) in the graveyard in the Karachay village of Verkhney
iijiyif in the graveyard" (BaKapencKH 1990: 93-95). Many.
nip •lllll'
I I'll! 166 167
-'Fill
li:iiiJ»l
 V, is motivated by the relevant cosmogonic concepts, which as a rule are in syn- with a rope is typical of the Turks and Mongols, who used this method in killing
chrony with the Kan ideology, with the origin and belonging of high individuals nobles, such as princes and tarkans, to avoid spilling their blood on the ground"
to the upper celestial world. The statehood of the Bulgars, which maintained the (EenieBjiHeB 1981: 69). In this connection, I want to repeat that the custom of
territory of a sedentary stratified population, likewise required an adequate keeping the internal organs in the upper part of the body and the head (lungs,
ideology shaping its social mores and politics. The divine origin of secular and heart, trachea) whole as a seat of the ami soul has been preserved in Mongolian
priestly power focused and emanated the lofty spiritual values of society through sacrifices to this very day, and that it is a typical manifestation of Asian ani-
the concepts of the Supreme God, and- the belief that the K a n is "ruler by the mism (see chapter "Rites and Concepts"). Here any parallels with the Bulgar-
will of G o d " and the rjriest/askal is "chosen by Tangra". In this type of ideol- ian mediaeval ideology or even the Bulgarian folk tradition are unfounded. At a
ogy, it is only natural that such individuals will return to H i m . T h e following deeper level, the "sending o f f by hanging (which ensured the "return''/rebirth
excerpts show that Tangra was believed to predetermine the fate of the ruler of kans, leaders, distinguished heroes and even of enemies - to/in the native
and the kingdom as well as the afterlife of humans, which was imagined as a land), and especially the strangulation of the kan to determine how long he
>.l I
continuation of life on earth: would reign, is based on the concept of the three-tier vertical structure of the
, I
.l> world. In the cosmogonic concepts of the Bulgarians, this is represented through
And people recognized Bu-Urgan as a boyar or askal [priest] that is a prophet... a sui generis body code - in the sky there is "a world that is the same as this one
l! and wanted to raise him to the throne. But Bu-Urgan valued the status of the boyar ... where people tie bands around their neck. On earth, which is in the middle
'I . more than the title of the Kan and said: "People, certainly, are free to choose their
of the world, people tie bands around their waist, while below earth there is
rulers, but not from the boyars who are chosen by Tangra..." (EaxiiiH HMaH.
another world - a lower world - and the people there tie bands around their
2001:17)
knees" (MapHHOB 1984:49; for similar Central Asian concepts, see T e o p r n e B a
Khakan/Kan Kaban ... invited Bat-Boyan ... and Bu-Urgan to be present at a
ceremony of tightening a rope around his neck during the rite of asking Tangra about 1983: 14, with References; among the Abkhaz, see JlyKtaHOB 1904: 29).
i'i' the time and trends of his reign... A specific substratum of hanging (as a way of sending off someone to a
I, Sulabi, a son of Bu-Timer, took up the helm of the Kara-Bulgars, and received an "high" place and position) is found in Aleksandrov's account of the so-called
honour to be present at the tightening of a rope (around the neck) of the new Khakan/ "sukhaya beda" - literally "dry", i.e. bloodless, "misfortune" or "disaster" -
Kan, and informed everybody of Tangra's blessing for his 45-year reign... among the Chuvash, which later c a m e to be thought of as a form of revenge:
... Bardjil... probably refused to ascend to the throne with the traditional rites out "The worst possible disaster for the Chuvash is the 'dry misfortune' ... to take
of a fear to be strangled. their revenge on someone [who had insulted them or caused them trouble], they
[The leader of the Bulgar principality in the KamaRiver Region] hanged one of his would hang themselves in his yard. In their view, this was the greatest revenge
enemies [a Scandinavian called Khud] on a tree near his quarters on the Don River [?] possible" (AjieiccaHmpoB H . A . 1899: 32; also in C6oeB 1851: "The barbaric
with the words: "Serve, the most brave, to our God Tangra and let him revive you custom of bringing dry misfortune to your enemy, i.e. of hanging yourself in his
anew but in our land!" This was a great honour, for the Bulgars burned the unworthy
yard, seems to have died out"). It is only to be expected that there would be folk
opponents on the Hons'/Huns' custom... In time, the remains of the Bek [feudal lord,
interpretations of high ideology and practices, especially as regards the rites of
prince] of the Sadumians [Scandinavians; Norwegians, Swedes] fell under the tree and
began to be revered by the Cheremish w h o made sacrifices near t h e m before passage. Even in late folk rituals, the act of hanging/strangulation encodes knowl-
setting o u t for war. A n d the tree and' this place received the n a m e "Khud edge from a more archaic period and points to the ancient ritual practice (among
Imen"... (Baxmn HMaH 2001: 22, 23, 25, 54) the Bulgars, Chuvash, Balkar, etc.) of "banning" the hanged (up/sky/air), those
If they see that someone is energetic and knows things, they say: "He has the right killed by lightning (sky fire), the drowned (lower world/wafer), and those w h o
to serve our master." They catch him, place a rope around his neck and hang him on a committed suicide (who "passed'Vsacrificed themselves voluntarily) from the
tree until [the rope] tears; ... a man from Sind, who was quick on the uptake, found graveyard, as well as of worshipping the cosmogonic elements through tomb-
himself in this country and served the king for a short time.... He set off with them [a stones. Actually, it points to the question of why people who died in this manner
group of merchants] on a ship and they saw that he was agile and clever. They con- do not belong to the traditional village community. This is also expressed briefly
sulted each other and said: "This man is fit to serve our master, let us send him to our ,n
the ninety-eighth answer of Pope Nicholas I to the Bulgarian Tsar Boris in the
master." They disembarked on the shore, tied a rope around his neck, tied him to the n
'nth century ("You ask whether those w h o commit suicide should b e buried,
top of a tall tree, left him and went away. (3aHMOBa 2000: 64; nyTemecTBHe a
nd whether sacrifices should be offered for them...." - IIo,a,6paHH H3Bopn...
HGH-OajmaHa ... : 74) 2004: 40; emphasis added).
According to Beshevliev (referring to the successor of the Bulgarian Kan T h e designation of the head (or of the space around it) as a code for the
u
Krum, D u k u m , who was strangled by his attendants), "death by strangulation Pper world, as equivalent to humans and as a seat of their life force is closely
168 169

m
 related to the conceptions of the human body as a projection of the universe and and similar tombstones "with their cult of the dead ... which was preserved
its levels. There is ample evidence of this in archaeological and ancient written even after the adoption of I s l a m . . . . Thus, the word came to mean the spirit of an
sources, as well as in folk rituals. Here I would note the deformation of skulls ancestor who had acquired power in his lifetime and punished his descendants
practised by the ancient Bulgars, Alans, Sarmatians and others. The graves in for disobedience.... It is with this meaning that karamat passed from the Bulgaro-
the ancient necropolises of ".pagan Bulgars" in the Volga Region (from the eighth- Chuvash to the Cheremis and Votyak" (more recently, the same view is held by
tenth centuries) have an elongated section "for the sacrificial complex" to the Trofimov: this type of rituals and the very term "keremet... the main sanctuary
north of the head, and a total length of two to 2.60 metres; such graves are found in Volga Bulgaria and among the Chuvash ... entered the life and worldview of
also in s o m e late mediaeval C h u v a s h graveyards (in N o v o e Yadrino and the Mari and U d m u r t " - K H 3 2001: 207). T h e Chuvash believe to this very day
Martynkino - rjhpo3n,OBa 2007). A very typical act of designating the space that everything that is offered to the sacred tree of Kiremet (bread, fruit, cloths,
around the head has been preserved in Bulgarian and Chuvash burial rites to part of the kurban, etc.) goes to the dead: "They say that when the birds, dogs or
this very day. When digging a grave (among the Chuvash), the first spadeful of wolves eat of the offerings, they pass them on to the dead." 38 This folk concept,
earth is dug up from the eastern side, where the yupa will be placed in autumn; as well as Smirnov's view, expresses the connection of Kiremet (as a dual
it is put aside and then, after the grave is filled, it is returned to the same s p o t - variant of the supreme Tura) with the world of the dead and his role as media-
1 over the head; in the southern regions it is called caean manpulearth for the tor. One of the symbols of-their manifestation is precisely the tree/oak. A m o n g
Ii salvation of the soul ( M e c a p o m 2000: 175, 180-181). 36 In Northeastern Bul- the Bulgarians (in the village of Letovnik, near Kurdjali, Southeastern Bul-
garia (the village of Kalipetrovo), "the first [spadeful of] earth is left aside, and garia), "it is remembered that when making a [new] graveyard, an oak-tree had
after the grave is filled it is placed by the grave cross", i.e. on the eastern side, to be planted as a guard" (MejiaMen 2000: 44).
over the head (TeHHeB 1974: 293; emphasis added). 37 That the head is re- The yupa is always placed over the head of the dead person, nowadays in
garded as an equivalent of the person in Bulgarian.burial rites is also indicated the western part of the grave, and "faces" eastwards. 3 9 It is made and erected
by the "special attention" paid to the place where the head of the dead person root-end-up - various scholars think this symbolizes the idea of the creation (of
lay (there they put "a heavy stone, an axe, broke a clay vessel or tile after the the World tree turned upside down) and the very state of death. The reversed or
removal of the b o d y " - BaicapejicKH 1977: 494) as well as the above-men- inverted order in the other world is an ancient Asian spiritual concept as well.
tioned second funeral/burial ("In villages where there are ossuaries at the church, With some reservations, this concept may be used to explain the downward-
only the head is taken o u t . . . and after it stays some time in the church it is taken tapering ancient Bulgar monuments, 4 0 the representations of an inverted/half-
1
to the ossuary, where it is lost among the m u l t i t u d e " - BaicapejicKH 1977: 497; sun in the lower part, 41 of course also the custom of wearing clothes inside out
,:II emphasis added). in Bulgarian memorial practices, etc. According to the "logic" of this ritual
• il
Along with the concept of the Chuvash yupa as a personification of the archetype, the low is a code for the high-, whereas things broken, mixed, broken
dead person, the yupa itself symbolically represents the connection of humans entity in general symbolize the other order.42 The Bulgarians and Chuvash be-
with the diving being. Oak (of which m e n ' s tombstones are made) is the tree of lieve that after death the soul goes to God in the other world by way of the
God; the Oak - Tura/Teiri/Kiremet semantic unity is manifested at different rainbow created by Him, and that those w h o j u m p over the rainbow will change
ill their sex "because in the world of the dead everything is opposite" ( M e c a p o m
levels in Chuvash and Balkar rituals. At the beginning of the twentieth century, I.N.
Smirnov ( H . H . CMHPHOB 1904) traced the worship of kiremets directly back 2000: 78,. 199). The Balkar call the rainbow (which divides the worlds of the
to the Arabic meaning of the word karamat - "supernatural power of a holy living and of the dead) "Teiri's sword" (meupu KhbiJibm), and say when there is
(deceased) person". The Volga Bulgars associated the worship of the karamat
8
Informant German Larshnikov, RN 2002, village of Bolshoe Buyanovo, Tatarstan.
39
In Christian burials in the graveyards of non-Christian Chuvash, the cross is always in
llH' 36
There is a similar expression in the Mount Pirin area in Bulgaria, where people used the eastern part of the grave, over the feet of the dead person - "because he rises and makes
to say after the second, "true" funeral/burial that "the dead had saved themselves" (KaydpMaH the sign of the cross".
40
H., ft,. KaycbinaH 1988: 38) - probably as a metaphor for passage of the last stage. JIio6eHOBa 1996: JVe 34, 63, 64, 82a,6, 145, 148, 150, 163 etc.; EHHCB-BIWIO
37 19
In the Mount Strandja area, when the grave is levelled for the first time on the fortieth 94: J\b 9, 34, 36, 38, 113, 206, 224, 266, 268, 289, 355, 369, 530, 537 etc.
41
day after death, when the soul "sets off on a long journey to the other world", the first spadeful JTio6eHOBa 1996: JVe 34, 63, 64, 82a,6,145, 148,150, 163 etc.
42
of earth is dug up from the part over the heart; it is put aside and, after the grave has been A typical example are the untempered and unstable pitches in laments in different
levelled, it is put back on the same spot (informant Marula Yankova, born 1922, RN 2001. territories, which Tolbert (1990, with References) thinks are an expression of successful
village of Bulgari; for more on the concept that "the soul resides/lives in man in his heart'. transportation" and contact with the other world which is imagined "as a mirror of this world"
see MapmioB 1914: 224, 227). (see chapter "Untugun and the 'Music' of Shamans").

170 171
'( i'
b
 ?n
I t
MI;1!:

a storm that "Teiri is smiling or blooming". 4 3 The inverted order explains the as a thunderer. Probably this is at the root of the symbolic meaning of lightning
finds of broken vessels in Thracian necropolises which are fit for use there as an arrow of god. In the village of Naratasty (an old Chuvash village in
precisely in broken form. A m o n g the Bulgarians, this is expressed briefly in Bashkortostan), the stone from which permanent tombstones are m a d e is called
their explanation for the custom of breaking a clay vessel after filling the grave "celestial stone sent by Turd" during a thunderstorm. Probably this myth
.*. ~j .. alsn
™ i* inu the>
u u u g1-itnai
a uiuiiucisujiiii. n o o a o/vu_
i y mis i e m e is
- in this way "the dead take everything that is theirs" (BaicapejicKH 1977: re-enacted svmhnlirflllv fi^t-i^ „t f,,.-~-.~i~ /-n mytnen
1.
re-enacted symbolically also in the ritual firing at funerals (the Chuvash light a
494). Early Bulgar necropolises on the Balkans (MejiaMen; 1987: 309) also fire on the eastern side of the grave and, "while lowering the body [into the
offer evidence of the practice of deforming weapons and skeletons after death grave], fire in the air" - TpodpHMOB 1993b: 65; emphasis added).
(breaking, cutting off parts of the feet or hands before burial, tying limbs, etc.).44 Regarding the preservation of this type of mytheme, I want to note in paren-
Even today old people tell about such acts/deformations which were performed thesis the "return" of a classical symbol of the Supreme God, a symbol rising
in the past for apotropaic reasons, such as "chasing away" evil or "fighting evil above the-roofs of Balkar houses built after the deported Balkar were allowed
spirits". These reasons are typical of late folk interpretations, which function to return to Kabardino-Balkaria in the mid-twentieth century, which differ radi-
"to the benefit o f , not "in the n a m e o f , and which, strangely enough, are re- cally from the old Balkar building traditions. These are the so-called "spear
peated in scientific texts as "discoveries" of the authors. Well, if anyone sees points" - arrow-like forms in different variants, most often painted in blue,
evil spirits in their study, let him or her chase them away as they see fit - which to my knowledge have not been studied among the Balkar to date. 46 Some
apotropaically. observations among the Bulgarians on the Balkans refer us to an earlier ritual
The graveyards of non-Christian Chuvash, including the mediaeval ones, level of this type of images - to the concepts of ascent to and descent from
are always on open high ground by a river. The "burials of pagan Bulgars" in above, conceptualized in the late nineteenth century as an apotropaic act: "The
the Volga Region are on river banks as well (/J,p03,n,0Ba 2007). This phenom- gate [of the yard] often has something like a small roof, and a cross hanging in
the
enon is also found in various parts of Bulgaria. 4 5 According to Trofimov's middle. Before, as Rakovski reports ... instead of a cross a special spear
"visual" explanation, the hill-graveyard supposedly personifies on the one hand ('a pole sharpened like a spear') hung there, on which the heads of enemies or
>r|!
h of animals sacrificed to the gods were stuck to protect the property against
"the mythical mountain, and on the other ascent to the sky" (TpotpHMOB 1993b:
66). Without ignoring the Chuvash myth about the Supreme Tura who "resides attack or evil spirits. This archaic pagan ritual has been preserved in some
in a gold palace on a high mountain in the seventh sky" or the fact that the parts, and old w o m e n claim that this is exactly how things should be d o n e "
entire community of the graveyard, headed by the Macap nygndxe, is located (BopaneK 1984: 104). The arrow-like form of some Bulgarian and Chuvash
up, I must say I have no intention of "climbing" mythical topoi with the help of temporary tombstones which have concrete equivalents in the above-mentioned
"spear points" have probably inherited similar, "high" symbolic meaning (Fig.
cliches. In the mytho-concepts and memory of informants, such topoi are not
47,48, 49).
identified as natural hills or mountains but have metaphorical names - of the
<B The colour blue, which is still found in many objects and structures in the
Creator himself. For example, the old graveyard of the non-Christian Chuvash
near the village of Sabakaevo, which is located on an ancient kurgan, is called Volga Region, to the north and south of the Caucasian Ridge, is a typical and
Yuan meMulHill of the Giant; memorials are conducted there every spring ani ancient "celestial" symbol. In the folk concepts of the Balkar and Karachay,
h
autumn, i.e. the site continues to function as a sacred, votive site despite the 'ue beads and stones personify the dead ancestors and death (KapaiceTOB
fact that burials stopped there at the end of the 1930s (from TpotpHMOB 1993b: 2001; 71). "The Bulgars believed ... that the colour of Tengre (blue, white,
152). As noted earlier, the Supreme Tura is one of the Ulap giants who, accord- ''ght) had protective p o w e r " (^aBJieTiuHH 1990: 58, referring to Volga Bul-
ing to myth, fell asleep in the sky and w o k e up in the same celestial "situation garia). Many Chuvash grave structures in Tatarstan, Bashkortostan and South-
ern
- Chuvashia are painted in blue; there are traces of blue paint on some older
yuPas as well. This tradition has survived in the new metal temporary tomb-
43
Informant Amush B. Mogametovich, born 1927, RN 2005, village of Verkhnaya st
ones and fences, in the Christian crosses that can be seen, albeit rarely, in the
Balkaria, Cherek Region, RKB. § r aveyards of non-Christian Chuvash. The same symbol of the celestial prin-
44
The Chuvash tie the front and back legs of the sacrificial animal before sacrificing' Cl
Ple has passed over into Muslim graveyards in Kabardino-Balkaria (Fig. 50)
with the practical explanation that they "can thus catch it in the other world" (RN 200*> s
well as into votive crosses of the Bulgarians on the Balkans. The symbolic
sanctuary near the village of Timoshkino, Tatarstan).
45
According to Vakarelski (BaKapencKH 1990: 138, with References) "most of* 6
graves [in the hamlets around the village of Vakarel, West Central Bulgaria] are on high groan • ,p In his study on some Kuban ornaments on the windows of houses, Ryabchikov
HK0B
. <, ) interprets the rhomb as well as two opposite arrows, represented as one figure,
Some are near ancient tumuli. ... Almost all have thick oak-trees which people don't do c
ytho-Sarmatian solar signs.
cut down because the Devil will persecute them wretched fellows [emphasis added]"-

172 173

fc k
 TP

rocks" (in the region of Babugent), and the sacrifice of an animal with white
meaning of the colour blue is preserved also in Bulgarian folkloric material
skin and black ears (in honour of Chopa, of the Sky Teiri and of the Sun Teiri,
from the nineteenth century - in the concepts of .the cardinal directions and their
articulated also in ritual "prayer-songs" - field findings in Xajj)KHeBa 2000:
colour: "According to folk lore, there are three seas: a black, a white, and a
31). People no longer remember why black-and white animals were sacrificed...
blue one. The sun flows from the white sea and sets in the blue one. That is why
But at.the same level of folklore, in different charms and spells in the territories
the white sea is in the east and the blue one in the west" (MapHHOB 1914:7,40;
under review here, white and black continue to be pronounced as metaphors for
emphasis added). The sun shines strongest to the south and west. In some
day and night/earthly and celestial, and this verbal code structured Order and
folksongs, the direction from which the Sun/solar mother appears is defined as
Chaos, Life and Death almost until the end of the twentieth century (HeiiKOBa
"white south" (HeiiKOBa, ToztopoB 2007: N° 53). The conception of the south-
2004). Colour symbolism in Chuvash and especially in Balkar rituals also points
ern as white, front, light is also c o m m o n among many Middle Asian peoples;
us to the not yet fully elucidated question of the worship of a number of female
they associate the northern direction with an ocean and a boundless expanse of
deities with similar traits, attributes and functions. That they belong to a com-
water, where the World River flows into the Lower World. T h e kingdom of
mon mythicalcore is especially obvious in the Caucasian Nart Sagas. In Chuvash
death is located in the north and underground (Pentikainen 1998: 37), and the
family and calendar rituals, female animals are sacrificed only to the mothers of
colour of death and of the animals sacrificed to the northern spirits is black
Man Tura and of Kiremet (a sheep or cow "which everyone must sacrifice in
(among the Mongol peoples, Ob-Ugrians, etc.) The Bulgarian conception con-
their lifetime" - BHUIHCBCKHH 2001: 236), as well as to the kiremet's water (a
tinues as follows: "The black sea41 is in the north, and you have to travel on it
goose or a sheep) which encodes the connection of Kiremet himself to the lower
by boat to get to the Mount Athos" (MapHHOB 1 9 1 4 : 4 0 , 5 0 ; emphasis added). I
levels of the Universe and his role as mediator. In earlier accounts, the colour
believe that the "lowest", earlier concepts of black and white/blue m a y be
of the sacrificial animals is defined simply as "dark". This requirement, as well
associated with the north-south polar orientation and function parallehy as
as the concepts of the goddess mother, wife or daughter of Tura, Kebe, Kiremet,
a metaphor for the life-death opposition. In the Strandja village of Bulgari,
have been forgotten in most villages. Their reconstruction is made all the more
when a bull (as a rule dark-coloured or black) is slaughtered for an all-village
difficult by the confusing and, I would say, vague information about this ques-
ritual, its head must "face the sun" (eastwards), the slaughterer must be left-
tion, including in contemporary publications.
handed and called Kostadin; the slaughtered bull must fall on its right side
(southwards). 4 8 According to this rule, the left hand of the slaughterer corre- Without going into the subject of female deities, I would like to note the
sponds to the northern direction. dark, chthonic symbolic aspect of another folklorized Christian "figure" vener-
ated in Bulgarian traditional rites - the androgynous Saint Petka/Petko. Simi-
The colour black and the northern direction are associated with the chthonic
larly to Saint Nikola, she represents the idea of the celestial-chthonic entity, of
aspect of some folklorized saints in Bulgarian folklore, with the supreme Tura
supremacy and omnipotence, and she is venerated as "leader of the saints".
and Teiri. One of the most prominent parallels of the Chuvash Tura and the
Here we have a typical instance of the well-known phenomenon in which "the
Caucasian Teiri is Saint Nikola. In a folksong (from the Sofia area) about how
traits and attributes of one deity" are inherited by one or more folklorized per-
the world was divided among saints, Saint Nikola got the northern seas (C6HY
sonages (TTonoB P. 1991: 34). In Northeastern Bulgaria, Saint Petka is cel-
3, 1890: 35, M>2); among the Serbs, Saint Nikola is believed to "take and send
ebrated after Easter, similarly to the hailstorm-saints celebrated in spring and
the souls of the dead to the other world" (LTonoB P. 1991: 44, with Refer-
summer - at votive sites with a village-wide sacrificial feast (kurban) and
ences). There are some significant but very sparse old accounts of the Chuvash
Prayer for rain "so that there w o n ' t be a drought in the s u m m e r " (TTonoB P.
early-spring sacrifices ("when the grain is ripening") in honour of Tiira, in
1991: 142, 143). This last, which is not a prayer driven by necessity (!) en-
which the colour and sex of the sacrificed animals alternated ("they sacrificed a
codes the worship of the Thunderer as ruler of the sky elements and solar fire.
white animal one year, and a black one the following year" - E r o p o B H . H-
The Winter Saint Petka (14 October; the information below is from MapHHOB
1995: 205-206). Probably the same solar-chthonic colour symbolism is con-
^ U : 515-516; 1984: 85; ITonoB P. 1991: 145) is celebrated with specific
tained in the Balkar rituals in honour of Teiri performed "at white and black
rituals (known as Gospodeva tsarkva, literally " G o d ' s Church", Kokosha
^arkva/Ren's Church, Bozhi duhlGod's Spirit, etc.) performed at specific sites:
tue
47 y include sacrifice of black hens on a high hill outside the village, in a
For the name Black Sea as a literal translation of the ancient Greek A^eivog novtoi
Meadow with old oak-trees or other trees guarded by a dragon-keeper, near a
which probably is of Iranian or Daco-Moesian origin, see TeopraeB 1977: 31 (for this infof' v
°tive stone or old sacred site, in the graveyard or at a crossroads. The blood
mation I thank K. Porozhanov).
48
Informants Kiro Groudov (1924-2004) and Kiriaki Dimitrova (1925-2008), RN 1999. °f the hens is collected and buried at the top of the hill, at the roots of the tree or

village of Bulgari.
175

174
h
 w

the hill" - even though the hill in question is actually suitable for all kinds of
by the votive stone. 49 "The Bulgarians have the custom of sacrificing a black
orientations.
hen to propitiate death, too. If two members of a family die in the same year, old The problem of the designation of directions in rituals and religious con-
women will slaughter a black chicken at the second funeral and drop it secretly cepts on the Balkans is especially important in the context of the Thracian ethno-
into the grave" in order to prevent a third death. "In Shishentsi, near Kula, they cultural community, Thracian rock-cut and temple architecture, and ancient Bulgar
say that the dead were sometimes buried with a live hen. But they cannot ex- finds. The archaeological evidence shows that the rituals of the ancient Bulgars
plain what w a s the purpose of that" (BaKapencKH 1990: 139-140, 90; empha- and Thracians were based simultaneously on two orientations (parallel and
sis added). Birds are mediators. Their behaviour is interpreted most often in the meridian), which suggests that they had a belief system justifying the simulta-
context of the life-death opposition, and it is used to tell the fortune of the neous application of the two "cycles". At the same time, the megalithic culture
household and the house. If a hen crows like a rooster and, moreover, to the of the Thracians is defined as "solar", and the entrances of dolmens (the earliest
west, this is regarded as an omen of death or misfortune (MapHHOB 1914: 89; form of grave architecture) and of rock-cut tombs in the Eastern Rhodope Moun-
PbGbOB 1926: 157-158). The Chuvash say "it is obligatory" to sacrifice a hen tains "are always oriented in the direction of the sun ... mostly to the south,
to the yupa during the autumn rituals, although they no longer remember the southeast and southwest, more rarely to the west" (OOJI B. 1993: 10-12, 14-
earlier meaning of this sacrifice and the requirement that the hen must b e black. 15; emphasis added). Thracian submound temples have the same orientation
("If w e slaughter a rooster instead of a hen, w e leave money and say, 'Buy (their entrances are oriented to the south). The mythic contents and "lofty" char-
yourself a hen in the other w o r l d . . . ' If you d o n ' t offer [a sacrifice - l i t . "if you acter of the polarly/meridionally located sites of the Thracians 5 2 and of the
d o n ' t let blood"] they will punish y o u . . . It is obligatory to place the head of the ancient Bulgars (Thracian rock-cut tombs and sanctuaries, and submound temples;
hen by the yupa").50 In Chuvash memorials the animals are sacrificed at sunrise the Madara Horseman and the majority of the big structures in Pliska, such as
on the day before, at the pillar (yupa) supporting the big gates of the house. As a the throne hall of the big palace and the palace itself - CrenaHOB 1999: 66-67,
rule, it contains specific cosmogonic symbols which are also known from an- 156-157) indicate that the north/south orientation is associated with the ideas of
cient Bulgar and other tombstones (Fig. 5 1 , 5 2 ) . the kingship ideology, aristocratic initiation and other sacred rites, and, ulti-
North/south orientation of graves is typical of the ancient burial traditions mately, with the Supreme God. A similar meridional orientation, but to the south,
of many peoples. Chuvash burials were aligned north/south until the seven- in the burials of Scythian nobles in the sixth-fifth centuries B C is interpreted by
teenth century; Drozdova (/J,po3flOBa 2007) attributes the change in orientation some as a "manifestation of religious cults typical of the military elite" (TanpoB,
(west/east) to the influence of Christianity. A north/south orientation (with the TaBpHjiiOK 1988: 144). According to Krupnov (KpynHOB 1960: 367), the old
heads of humans, horses and dogs oriented to the north) i s found also in an- orientation in burial rites in the Northern Caucasus (with heads to the west) was
cient Bulgar burials and buildings from the period of the First Bulgarian Khanate changed precisely under Scythian influence.
on the Balkans. These early graves point to a connection with some late Sarmatian The simultaneous application of different orientations in the late folk tradi-
monuments (in the Volga Valley, the North Caspian region and the Caucasian tion is an expected phenomenon, but their actual meaning and functions have
Mountains), leading some scholars to conclude that there were "enclaves of been forgotten. Meszaros reports in the early twentieth century that "the recently
Iranian-language origin among the Proto-Bulgarians" (AHreJiOBa 1995: 5-17). 51 converted Chuvash ... dig graves along the north/south axis, placing the head
The north/south orientation has been preserved in some Bulgarian graveyards of the deceased to the south ... and turning it slightly to the side" ( M e c a p o m
in Southeastern and Western Bulgaria, which local people always explain to me 2000:178; emphasis added). This practice (from the nineteenth century) may be
by saying that the graves are oriented to the north because "that's how they fit associated both with an earlier substratum and a later Islamic influence (from
•II.
49
The chthonic aspect of Saint Petka is manifested also in a folksong about constructi-
on of bridges for dead souls; this song is sung by the lazarki in Southwestern Bulgaria at the 52
In some ancient mytho-narratives, the northern is also associated with the dark and
graveyard before sunrise during the lazarichki nedeli (see chapter "Sound and Ritual Along °lack. One eye of the Thracian singer Thamyris (the son of Philammon and the nymph Argiope)
the Route of the Bulgars"). In some villages in the Mount Pirin area, the dead were "dug up", was white, and the other black (Horn. Ilias. II Scol. II ad 591-602. - HTT I: 10) -probably
i.e. reburied, on the day of Lazaritsa (HeiiKOBa 1986: 36-50); on Summer Petkovden (Saint ? s'gn indicating that the mythical singer/lyre-player was a mediator; in Pseudo-Euripides, it
Petka's Day), the Bulgarians dye red eggs for the dead, arrange them on the graves, and then ls
"specified" that his right eye was white, and his left eye black (TM: 47). The description
give them away in commemoration of the dead QTIonoB P. 1991: 144). °f the Thracian Boreas, god of the north wind (who wrapped Oreithyia in dark clouds), and of
50
Informant Roza N. Chentaeva, RN August 2002, village of Novoe Aksubaevo, Tatarstan- his sons with thick black hair (Apoll. Rhod. Argonautica 1211-218. - T M : 132), as well as
E 51
For more on the predominant north/south orientation of Sarmatian burials in the Nor- l
11 he phrase about "the frozen sea of Boreas" (t>on AJI. 1991: 175, in the poem of Nonn. Dion.
mm thern Black Sea and Volga regions, as well as of nomadic burials in the Eastern Eurasian VI 155-223 Keydell), indirectly suggest that the northern was associated with the dark.
steppes and Middle Asia, see CicpHnKHH 2001.
177
176
 w

ill the Volga Bulgars). The southern orientation is known in the Bulgarian burial Kuban heritage (HeneHOB 1969:107; Fig. 5 5 , 5 6 , 5 7 ) . During the Middle Ages
tradition from the nineteenth century and later in the southeastern parts of the (fifteenth-seventeenth centuries) they functioned parallel with the underground
I pi country (the Strandja region): "After washing [the body], they dress it in a new tombs built of stone, with individual pit burials, and especially with the cata-
shirt and new clothes, take it inside the house and lay it out so as to face either comb structures which are very typical of the region and are regarded as "be-
iilij east or north, but not west or south" (MapHHOB 1984: 521); "When burying yond doubt Alanic" (for a review of the different theses, see CicpHnKHH 2001,
,',L someone, their head must be to the west ... or the south" (informant Marula with References). Kuznetsova (Ky3HeuoBa 1982; with References) thinks that
Yankova, born 1922, R N 2002, village of Bulgari, Southeastern Bulgaria). the prototype of these overground tombs, in which "the connection with pagan
beliefs can be traced clearly", are the old dwellings. She claims that between
There are different hypotheses about the origins of the old grave structures the two types of structures, underground and overground, there was continuity
ill! in the Northern Caucasus, where there has been interchange of different peoples, "obviously based on the continuing ancient traditions preserving the customs of
ideas and behaviours (and even of their expression in architectural form) for ancestor worship". This basically means that people must have gotten sick and
thousands of years. Some scholars associate them with the ancient Bulgars. 53 tired of digging holes and decided to move the commemoration of ancestors
The concept of passage to the Supreme G o d after death, a passage assigned to above the ground. A constructively ancient form, however, does not necessarily
nobles in ancient times, led to the construction of two types of tombs in this attest to an ancient way of thinking in the community that has inherited it. T h e
region, some of which functioned until the end of the nineteenth century. They emergence of these architectural forms is the result of something entirely differ-
are associated with specific universal concepts, preserved even among people ent - of the ideology of a state formation. What is more important for m e is not
of different religions (the idea of an afterlife, of the entirety of the family/clan, their actual ethnic origin but the religious and social symbolic meaning as-
personified constructively as a "home'Vhouse, etc.). In the old highland Balkar signed to them. There is ample evidence that such structures located under-
villages (such as Makush and Verkhnaya Balkaria), the dead were buried in ground or overground were not built because of filial feelings or for ploughers...
overground and underground tombs built of stone, by rule family tombs, with- The underground tombs in the Northern Caucasus correspond also to accounts
out a fixed orientation. The underground tombs do not have an overground mound written by Arab observers about the Volga Bulgars (Al-Massoudi: "when some-
!i and their entrance is very small, a hole big enough only for a person to crawl one noble died ... they dug a big underground vault and made the wife and the
through; they are located in groups in the immediate vicinity, of the village people from the retinue of the dead man enter it together with him"; Al-Bekri:
(Fig. 53, 54). According to evidence from these villages, this tradition was "When someone dies, they place h i m i n a deep underground vault and make his
ultimately replaced by the practice of burying the dead in sarcophagus-like un- wife and slaves climb down inside, where they stay until they die" - EeiiieBjiHeB
derground individual stone graves (a practice that has survived to the present 1981:102; emphasis added).
III ill day) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. M y informants said that
1)4 Domed mausoleums (specific to Middle Asian architecture) were also
the sick and those threatened with death went there by themselves (!) to die:
built during the Middle Ages for the elite in the old capital of the Volga Bul-
I iiiii "When an epidemic broke o u t - cholera, the plague... they would go there... as
gars, Bolgar. 55 According to Rudnitskiy (PyflHHijKHH 2001, with References),
if in a shelter, and die... People lie there to this very day the way they had
lifillli the overground tombs concentrated in the region of the Kuban River in the
arrived, but their clothes have rotted away. These underground sepulchres are
seventh-ninth centuries, were built for nobles under Middle Asian and Iranian
called luuaKZ-b/uiuaKpbh - you would go there by yourself, crawling through .. •
•nfluence. Because of their earlier Parthian equivalents (deep vaulted tombs)
people would go inside, where the disease itself struck them down." 5 4
and because of the fact that the bones of those who died earlier were kept in
The overground rectangular, domed (regarded as earlier in origin) and po- them, Rudnitskiy associates them, as well as rock burials, with Zoroastrian
lygonal (hexagonal to octagonal) walled family tombs found among the Balkar, burials and Zoroastrianism, which spread to the region along the Silk R o a d in
ill Karachay and Ossetians (keshene in Balkar) are considered to be a local late- the seventh century. The possibility that there were Zoroastrian rituals among
the Bulgars in the Northern Caucasus (by the principle of "non-desecration" in
w
53 hich the cleansed bones, isolated from the sacred elements - fire, earth, water
For a review of the different hypotheses, see PyrrHHUKHH 2001. According to Ange-
lova (AHrenoBa 1995: 5-17, with References), the complex ethnic and historiographic pic- "through clay, stone, limestone, are placed in closed ossuaries) which, even if
i>l|il!i||j| ture in the region has led to a "significant diversity of grave structures (even within one and
the same necropolis), which makes it impossible to make categorical conclusions about eth- v " According to Aidarov (AiiaapoB 2001: 37-38, 71), the overground tombs in the
nic identity". °'ga Region (with equivalents in the Trans-Caucasus, Crimea and Asia Minor), directly con-
ii * ! 54
Informant Zvorzhan B. Ulbashev, born in the village of Shaurdat in 1930, RN Septem- n e d with the building traditions of Volga Bulgaria, are related "typologically and stylisti-
Call
* ! ill ber 2005, village of Verkhnaya Balkaria, RKB. y to the Muslim East".

j p( i-|ll| 178 179

lii-iil k
 U f
•ifll
iiini in "clearing up" concrete relicts in a folk heritage that has bilateral parallels
hypothetically, could associate them with the overground tombs, is ruled out by (HeiiKOBa 2004). Worshipping God in a sacred space and at sacred (oak) trees
{<iii
ii'iiil a prima facie incontestable fact: the pit burials, which attest to the "exceptional is an ancient cultural universal that survived in folklore until the twentieth cen-
resilience" of Bulgarian burial rites, including until the tenth century (Pyjj,HHu,KHH tury; it is known from the doctrinal and mysterial Thracian societies as well as
ill from mediaeval rites in the Circumpontic Region. A number of ancient Thracian
2001). Neither could there have been Zoroastrian elements in the burial rites of
M
the Bulgars on the Balkans (nor in those of the Chuvash), where fire rituals temple complexes and menhirs have remained a "cult centre" for the population
.«•' to this very day (OOJI B. 2000: 81, 83-84, 87). T h e territory of sacred springs
were especially important for the passage of the dead; evidence of this practice
Iiup
mi has also been found in mediaeval Bulgarian burials ( M e n a M e a 1987). The and structures in Southeastern Bulgaria (fenced squarely or rectangularly 5 8 -
iifl aforementioned second/true burial of the bones cleansed of flesh 56 among the with a wicker fence in the past and with a wooden fence today), together with
Bulgarians is probably a pre-Zoroastrian/Indo-Iranian substratum. It is entirely the concepts of inviolable trees, the different directions of entry and exit, etc. is
possible that during the Middle Ages, this tradition spread to the west by way of similar in many respects to the ancient Bulgar/Chuvash kiremet. The location of
the most intensive contact zones in Middle Asia. However, no evidence of the sacred site and spring (as elected, "pointed out" from on high), very often on
reburial (and common ossuaries) has been found to date in the Chuvash folk a hill or in a hollow, is a metaphor for the "high" and the "low" and the passage
tradition or in earlier Chuvash and Bulgar necropolises in the Volga Region. between them. It is obvious that Tangra "came to rest" on the Balkans upon
|ll'!I||
illNPlI The problems and disputes regarding the Bulgarian presence in the North- similar cosmogonic concepts, semantic oppositions and acts of ritual "tran-
ern Caucasus c o m e from the failure to recognize that the Bulgarians (as well as scendence" (of humans, of sacrificial messages, etc.).
Bulgarian folklore) are a cultural-historical amalgam. Focusing research on M a n y rituals in Bulgarian folklore on the Balkans are a synthesis of

1
I IHIlll
III! i
plN"l||
I •ftpl
-Pill'
i'il-pi|
lii'iiiiii
archaeological sites is unlikely to be productive for the simple reason that the
constructive views of a people are best represented in its beliefs and ritual
system, which should be the starting point of any investigation. Furthermore, the
concepts of afterlife in the other world can have different forms of constructive
expression, depending on the community's stratification.
diachronically manifested cultures, and their components make it difficult to
draw categorical conclusions about their origins and probable prototypes. F o r
example, a hopelessly open "text" known among the Caucasian peoples and the
Bulgars in "nomadic" and in "agricultural" Asia, is the tasting of raw meat of
the sacrificed animal, the sprinkling of blood, and the hanging of the head and
AMI skin of the sacrificed animal on a high place. The finds in ancient Bulgar burials
Here I will end the subject of funeral, burial and memorial rites by pointing
jUllfi in which pieces of meat "were, as a rule, left raw" (MejiaMen, 2000: 15, 16)
out one of the most significant factors distinguishing the ritual faith and worldview
probably symbolize the idea of the "passage" of the sacrificed animal to the
fI of the Bulgarians and Chuvash from those of the "classical" (Siberian and Asian)
[III' otherworld, of the raw as alive. In line with another ancient cultural universal,
shamanic communities: the monistic soul of humans, the irreversibility and "eter-
"lllll male animals were offered to a god and female animals to a goddess; this cus-
IMP nity" of their spiritual substance as a single and unique entity. To quote the
tom has been preserved to date both in Chuvash rites (BHumeBCKHH 2001:
niililllll Kabardinian Zramuka Khuranov (1896-2000), "Man has one soul and it should 250) and in ritual sacrifices to male and female saints on the Balkans. Various
Hi I Ill be a good one." 57 sources and finds show that the interaction of cultures in the Circumpontic com-
|ff" "ill
munity (of which the Bulgars became part at the beginning of the first millen-
i)h |ii|l
»iil|f The problem of ideology and its spiritual "transpositions" in time is espe- nium AD, according to the official academic view) continued in the next epochs
a
If cially important in analyzing the inherited ethno-cultural traditions of the Bul- s well. Despite the complexity of the subject of research, the evidence clearly
i >. (iill garians on the Balkans, which are the result of centuries-long processes of con- indicates that the ethno-cultural consolidation on the territory inherited by the
iii||H
•iplil} solidation of Thracian, Bulgar and non-Bulgar elements. T h e superimposition Bulgarians could hardly have been the fruit only of "centuries of coexistence"
"ii'ii of conceptually similar religious behaviours and even of identical rites among °f immigrant " n o m a d s " and indigenous "tribes", as Bulgarian textbooks and
lilf infl the Thracians and the ancient Bulgars has'produced a specific, monolithic cul- rums suggested to the young generation during communism. The consolidation
i. null
ill Hill ture. Relying on ancient written and archaeological evidence is not always helpfu' °f different ritual- and life-behaviours upon the successive Bulgarian "step"
0
1 Hl>il|l| n the Balkans (where statehood had shaped the way of thinking and ritual
i 'ii 56
III> ••• The bones were reburied in the same grave or in a common ossuary (if there was ofle
111 in the village) - a small separate building or the graveyard chapel, where they were placed i" 58
'••'Hill bags/wrapped in cloth under the floor, and left there without further care. Such ossuaries a' For more on "initiation in Asian Minor and Mithraistic mysteries ... in sanctuaries in
IHISlI s form of an elongated triangle under a cylindric roof, a form adopted also in the lands of
(Ii •lllll found mainly in the western Bulgarian lands (BaKapejicKH 1990: 175-176). ,
57 lh
L ..iil|| Informant Muzarin Fitsevich Khuranov, born 1947, RN September 2005, village ° racian Orphism", see cfcon. AJI. 2002: 231.
"I "il 181
jirif II Karagach,RKB.
•' Ill
III ill1
I .I'-i lllll 180
ililinr
m 1,.1111
 system for centuries) presupposes their "internal" conceptual predisposition Court Gatekeeper (Ajiaic yean); God's Messenger (nyjiexce) who brings
and "similar types of historical m e m o r y " of their carriers (OOJI AJI. 1986: people bad or good fortune "at God's command"; Pigambar (from the Persian for
175). "prophet", "bearer of good news") who "protects herds and peoples from wolves and
bears"; he has power over domestic and wild animals; Great Ambassador and Trans-
Since the formal state ideology and the formal state and literary language used lator (Man Kene) - mediator between the upper celestial and the middle earthly world,
throughout Southeast Europe - by that time inhabited by Thracians without an own between gods and humans, with power over the plant world and bees, the earth itself
state - was Greek or Latin, and later on, in the Middle Ages, also Bulgarian ... the and the stratum below it; at Tura's command he, too, governs human destiny; his
certain Thracian-Latin, Thracian-Hellenic or Thracian-Bulgarian bilingualism- related dwelling is the World tree; Impregnator of the Earth (Xepnecbip), with power over
and dependent on the respective state (in our case here - Rome, Byzantium or Bul- the plant world; Khurban (Xdpnau, lit. "sacrifice", from Arabic kurban) who delivers
garia) - became pointless and-was replaced by the Hellenic-Bulgarian bilingualism in the offered sacrifices and requests to Tura or to "He Who Stands Before God".
the Middle Ages. The latter is particularly well-to-observe in contact zones as the North Pyulyukhsa, Pigambar and Kebe are hierarchically equal deities, second in rank after
Aegean coast, as well as about the west coast of the Black Sea. That is why the the Great Tura and "serving as his deputies". (BnuiHeBCKHH 2001: 232,245-6; EropoB
Thracian (features) proved to be best preserved to date in Bulgarians and Greeks of H. H. 1995: 122)
today (from the northern part of present-day Greece). Namely the conservatism of the
Thracian society from the third period of Ancient World History [especially in the age In the Bulgarian mediaeval states, Tangra predetermined the divine origin
of the Late Roman Empire] enabled it - basing upon its traditional popular culture - to
and destiny of the ruler and the "kingdom", and the "life" of people after death
fit into the new Bulgarian ethnicity of the Southeast-European Middle Ages. ... Rela-
believed to be a continuation of their life on earth. It is He who is the creator
tively easy and spontaneous seems to have been its integration in the process of transi-
tion to the new social-economic relations of the emerging medieval feudalism.... Thus, and lord of the universe and who, as such, has various tasks and "duties". T h e
the final period of the History of Ancient Thrace and of the Thracians found the best folk belief and "forms" of Tura/Teiri/Tangra in t h e Volga Region, the Northern
way to merge into the beginning of the History of Medieval Bulgaria, whose society, Caucasus and the Balkans (as the sun, a giant, a hero, an old m a n . . . ) raise the
resp. social relations on that phase proved to be closest and similar to those of the question of his stage-by-stage construction and inheritance over time. Today
Thracian community. (Porozhanov 2003: 290; 292) many contents of the rituals in his honour "encode" another context and even
another religious level. However, they can be decoded thanks to the conserva-
The memory about Tura/Teiri/Tangra and the different ritual levels of wor- tive and archaic character of many of the inherited traditional and ritualcompo-
ship may be defined as a stratum of Tengriism that has survived in hidden and nents irrespective of the socio-political and ideological fate of the population
visible forms in the folk traditions of the Chuvash, the Balkar and the Karachay that carries them.
- as well as of the Bulgarians. It is quite likely that in the mediaeval Bulgarian Our theses about Tura/Teiri/Tangra, formulated after months of field re-
states, this Supreme God united inherited polytheistic functions and personages, search, do not provide unambiguous answers but raise pertinent questions about
which H e "returned" to folk faith through a generalized "figure/model" and the essence and dynamic of the spiritual values preserved in the behaviour of
divine hypostases (multiple gods). It is quite likely that H e was manifested as living faith. This Supreme God does not fit into some scientifically generaliz-
the product of a centuries-long synthesis of ideas and behaviours even in the ing propositions (for example, that Teiri is the "supreme deity of all Turkic
mediaeval Bulgarian states. Invested with ancient and inherited spiritual con- peoples who inhabited the vast territories of Middle Asia and Mongolia in pre-
tents, He was conceptualized through and in the indigenous value system of the Mongol times" - ri>KypTy6aeB, EojiaTOB 1990, with References). Let m e re-
local population as an "own" god, becoming a God of all and remaining Su- mind the reader that among many Middle Asian peoples, tengri/tenger is a
preme in His territories in the next centuries as well... I would like to repeat name for the sky itself or for the spirit of the sky as well as for substances/
'i I'
III that as a sedentary social institution and ideology, the State creates and main- spirits with different functions. The specific development of religious ideas
tains models of behaviour which integrate the peoples within it irrespective among the Bulgars and among their successors, where Tura/Teiri/Tangra is the
of their size. Integration means above all synthesis of spiritual values and ritual supreme god, is another status of Tengriism, in which THE SKY- AND SUN-GOD/
behaviours which are transmitted diachronically in the memory of generations CREATOR IS MANIFESTED IN A RELIGIOUS, AND NOT IN AN ANIMISTIC BELIEF-SYSTEM.
as " o w n " ones and which are recognized at different levels in the inherited This "profile" of the ideology inherited in the rites in the ancient Bulgarian
tradition (of the Chuvash, Balkar and Karachay) as "archaic relicts". I can give lands stems from entirely real parameters - the protection of the state, kan,
1 as an example the retinue of deities which surround Tura in Chuvash family and army, subjects, whose generations and subsistence within the boundaries of a
f1 calendar rituals, and which have specific titles, functions and hierarchy - a culturally and historically conquered territory were the responsibility both of
retinue that could have emerged only in the context of statehood: the Supreme God and of the institution protecting/guarding this territory. That is

182 183

k
 also probably why Tura himself goes round the fields at harvest time. It is come clear. Then even the advocates of "some sort of pan-Turkic roots" will
precisely the existence of this Supreme God that rules out the possibility that realize that "the anthropomorphic form of the supreme deity Tangra a m o n g the
shamanhood existed among the Bulgars, even in an unclear and ancient past. Bulgars is obviously inconsistent with the Turkic tradition, in which Tengri
The active participation of this Tura/Teiri/Tangra (and his hypostases) in the means the Sky", that "the obvious personification" and anthropomorphic fea-
life of society - from the ways of the ruling elite to the calendar and family tures of Teiri in the Northern Caucasus "are not typical of all Turkic-Mongol
h rituals of the c o m m o n folk - as well as his accessibility to different social peoples" (TaJiauiOB 2004; MajiKOH^yeB 1988).
levels make him very different from the Middle Asian and Siberian concept of The trail of Tura/Teiri/Tangra silently invalidates some axiomatic conclu-
"the sacred sky" or Deus otiosus, which is only an idea of a life-giving, inac- sions in "politicized" science which have used sparse evidence to declare the
cessible, abstract and non-anthropomorphic being. ancient Bulgar-religiosity a spiritual and archaeological "fossil". Whereas this
I firmly believe that the ritual symbols of the God in ancient Bulgar sanctu- view may be appropriate in promoting cultural tourism, my informants - Bul-
aries (similarly to the Thracian ones) were within the power of priests and kans garians (in Tatarstan) and others with clear self-identification as descendants of
(and not of shamans 5 9 ). There is n o s u c h thing as s h a m a n s p e r se. The shaman the Bulgars (Chuvash, Balkar) - who accepted m e as a "relative" and part of
is invariably part of a human group that needs his services (Cho, Hung-yoon whom still profess their old faith, have no idea that they have been consigned to
1984: 463). In the zones outside "classical shamanhood" (of changing "em- museums... Thanks to the despicable political structures that ruled Danubian
pires" and unions where different religions overlapped in time) scholars look Bulgaria in the second half of the twentieth century (and whose time, unfortu-
for the configurations of syncretic ideological forms. As regards religion, ritu- nately, still has not run out), the Bulgars were "assimilated" by and indiscrimi-
als and musical "forms", the lands crossed by the Bulgars from the region of nately integrated into Slavdom... This paradoxical manipulation, according to
Pamir to the Balkans pose stumbling stones for anyone who wants to carry the which the models of the state are subordinate to the tribal ones, is also unfair
burden of "shamanism" across them. Such an undertaking invariably leads to to "Slavdom" itself, which in Danubian Bulgaria adopted the Bulgar ethno-
"no m a n ' s " land. And the identification of shamans - at that, with a "tupan and cultural models of behaviour and ritual system centuries ago. Figuratively speak-
drumstick" in rock drawings and graffiti-drawings of unclear origin (OBHapoB ing, having acquired a newly constructed past and the substratum religiosity of
ilVl 1997: 60) are a successive manipulation by researchers of the ancient Bulgar Thracians and Bulgars, Slavdom is now at a loss about the profile of its own
faith-behaviour. demonology... N o political conjuncture can disprove the Byzantine chroniclers
who distinguished the Bulgars from the Slavs even after the tenth century (long
The trail of Tura/Teiri/Tangra in folk memory can help us overcome some after the adoption of the new official state religion, Christianity), the subordi-
problems in reconstructing the religion of mediaeval - and later - Bulgarian nate economic/tax status of the Slavic clans/tribes as well as the policy of their
society. M a n y of these problems come from the misconception that origin and periodic massacre and resettlement outside and along the boundaries of Bul-
•i
language in themselves solve the question of faith and rituals in diachronically garia, especially during the First Bulgarian Empire (ITBCTKOB 2000: 75; 76;
mi changing cultures. 60 They come from the inertia of looking for the essence of 2000, with References). Back in those days, unfortunately, this came close to
i ancient Bulgarian spirituality solely within the context of Middle Asia and, genocide. The pan-Slavic politicized "science" (which holds that the Bulgars
furthermore, within the context of the widely used - and abused - scheme were " a s s i m i l a t e d by the S l a v s " - PiBaHOB et al. 2000: 14; HcxaKOB,
"Bulgars=Tiirks"... Such "categorical attribution" of spiritual values and H3Mafiji0B 2001: 50-51; http://slavn.org/23; EeTpo30B 1991: 119; OnepKH
'Jiiiiiii behaviours, and even of ideas, to peoples and especially to countries and "his- H
CTopHH...;OBqapoB/J. 1997:8; 1997: 13, to mention but a few) is welcome
torical" periods, eliminates the dynamics of their movement and continuity, their for the Chuvash and "Tatars" who are continuing to argue, openly or covertly,
permanent "return" despite the changing territorial boundaries. W h e n the con- a
°out who are the true descendants of Bulgaria and the Bulgars - w h o have
tents of a Supreme G o d (even if his n a m e is uncertain) are sought in different rer
nained in the past and whose sole descendants they claim to b e . . .
ijUfl
ethno-cultural levels, lands and times, his "Bulgar" individuality may also be-
I will not even think of renouncing the wealth of my traditional historical
|« ii-jil I memory and its multi-layered "profile"... I want to repeat for the umpteenth
tlrt
"The Proto-Bulgarians depicted Tangra andbuilt temples in his honour, in which pri ie that in the territories under review here and on the Balkans, there has been
!illii-i-J ac
E ests (shamans) [???] performed sacrifices" (TK)3ejieB B., BaiciHHOB Or. |1981: 82). enturies-long synthesis of cultures and that the unilateral ethnic definition
60
II! " "Neither language nor religion or lifestyle are nation-determining factors. ... A na- °*the surviving traditional memory of a centuries-old state community is not a
tion determines itself as such through its constructive behaviour (=culture), which is the Scientific but a geographical orientation of political interests... Their "bark"
result of the specific to it interaction between ... ideas-categories ... between values-vir- hasls c^,—J i <•
sounded for centuries • around- the
- Bulgarian
—- "caravan" on the Balkans, to-
IV tues" (OOJI AJI. 2000: 224).
"If "ill 184
185

I k i.
... i
 m

gether with various "academic" theories about its starting point and destina-
tion... A n d even though its "loads" are subject, to one extent or another, to
typological and functional comparisons to "distant lands", they are integrated
into a monolithic body through/and within a millennia-old state. Any study of
the latter's ethno-cultural "landscape" requires serious investigation of its trail
and route back in time. Otherwise we will be left with the old armchair advice
to "Old Bulgarian Studies" which, for example, were expected "to separate [?] O N VESHTERSTVO/WlTCnCRAFT AND SHAMANHOOD:
the non-Turkic deities from the Balkar pantheon of gods in order to reach a
DIFFERENCES AND POSSIBLE PARALLELS
sound [?] original-Bulgarian basis of gods" because "Proto-Bulgarian folk-
lore" was "completely lost [?]"(EajiKaHCKH, XamxorpKOB 1984: 50,46). Such
conclusions in "obituary-like" style can never be invented by a professional One outstanding problem directly dependent on the contents and decoding
ethnologist who knows several things well: the fact that "pure cultures" are dug of rites concerns the territorial dimensions of shamanhood, including of Sibe-
up only in the autumn and spring (with a hoe), and the law of inheritance in rian shamanhood. In Europe, most publications and debates on the subject are
ritual faith-behaviour and its sacred topoi over the centuries, i.e. the fact that centred around the Finno-Ugric peoples and their descendants (such as the present-
spiritual behaviours are not contained in petrified and archaic forms but in the day Finns and Hungarians), which are presumed to have had shamans in the
movement and memory of living cultures. N o r will a professional ethnologist past. Or so scholars claim.
ever renounce the unique expressions of folklore which carry the traits of dif- Because of their origins and language, the Hungarians often identify them-
ferent kinds of epochs and keep folklore alive... I envy J. Pentikainen (1998: selves as Finno-Ugric and as belonging "undoubtedly to the Uralic language
40) for what he was told by an old shaman in 1990, namely that "Jesus Christ group". This seems to underlie the widespread belief that "the old religion of
may be the youngest son of the God of the sky, N u m Torum"... pagan Hungarians could not have been different from the primitive faith of the
Siberian p e o p l e s . . . " (Hoppal 1984: 433). A number of Hungarian scholars
from, the early nineteenth century speculate "that Hungarians, when arriving to
the Carpathian Basin, had a system of beliefs that can be called shamanism, and
in consequence they must have had priests (magicians) who were acting in the
way shamans did. This hypothesis can be neither proved nor refuted" (Domotor
1984: 423). According to Hoppal (1984: 435), "It can be established that a
Ml shamanistic conception of the world constituted the backbone of the pagan Hun-
garians' worldview." On the whole, the traces of the so-called Hungarian sha-
manism have been reconstructed mainly from narratives ("folk belief l e g e n d s " -
|f, III Hoppal 1984: 435; Taube 1984: 344). The emblematic representatives of the
former are four main figures, "a series of so-called halfrshamans": tdltos, tudos,
I "1 garab oncids, and reg'os (Hoppal 1984: 433). These terms, which are known
from late mediaeval sources, cannot be derived from any Uralic or Altaic term
JHli for "shaman". Significant information about the tdltoses is offered by docu-
ments of the Inquisition from the seventeenth century and later: they were born
t 'ii1
with teeth, with a caul, and/or had a surplus finger (=bone); they were enemies
• II ii'i| and antagonists of witches, with w h o m they fought for the well-being of their
community; typically, tdltoses could vanish, change into different animal forms,
a
nd had initiatory visions; legends tell of fights between the tdltoses themselves
':>4\ lr
> the form of a "bull-fight", interpreted as analogous to the fights between
I in" different Altaic shamans and, more specifically, between their zoomorphic spirit
helpers (Hoppal 1984, with References; D o m o t o r 1984; Klaniczay 1984). Ac-
I'll '-|l cording to Klaniczay (1984:414), the majority of the features marking out tdltoses
•I ii seem to belong to indigenous European traditions ... [and] can be accounted
f-llf
186
mill-: III 187
I
 for within the general framework of shamanistic ideas". According to Hoppal brings it back to life. If, however, someone rolls her body in the meantime, the soul...
(1999: 60, citing Dioszegi), "the ones that c o m e closest to Hungarian tdltos will not be able to recognize and enter it, and the body will remain dead forever while
folklore are the parallels from the Altaic Turks, Tuva and Mongolia". More the soul wanders as an unclean spirit. ... When flying ... the veshtitsa is seen as fire or
as a flame.... At night, she wanders along the rivers and pools, where she meets with
moderate scholars point out that the hypotheses about the connection of tdltoses
the samodivi [sing, samodiva, wood nymph], who teach her how and with what to
with shamanhood can be neither proved nor refuted (Domotor 1984: 423).
cure diseases. ... All those persons, who use bewitched herbs, charms, magic ... con-
Klaniczay hypothesizes that there may have been "a transition from basically stitute a [special] group ... such people are treated with respect and awe ... [they] are
shamanistic beliefs to a belief-system, dominated by the paradigm of witch- superior to all others. ... The houses [i.e. clans] which produce diviners, fortune-
craft, as a consequence of important modifications in the life-conditions, eco- tellers ... are hereditary ... these powers are transmitted through blood... (MapHHOB
nomic activities and social formations of certain people. If such a transition 1914: 213-215,239-240; emphasis added)
takes place, it is highly improbable that witchcraft beliefs simply substitute the
former shamanistic concepts" (Klaniczay 1984: 415). In his study on the The contents and functions of this kind of figures in Bulgaria and the Balkans
benandanti in Northeastern Italy, which are similar to the Hungarian tdltoses, (called sing, magyosnitsa, pi. magyosnitsi, brodnitsa/brodnitsi, mamnitsa/
Klaniczay likewise refers to folk beliefs and narratives as well as Inquisition mdmnitsi, zhitomamnitsa/zhitomamnitsi, vrazhalitsa/vrazhalitsi, etc.) have
documents from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: parallels with the tdltoses and benandanti, with the Chuvash and Caucasian
witches and sorcerers. These parallels include the following:
The benandanti were bom as such (born with a caul); they started exercising their
functions when they became adults, around twenty, after an initiatory vision in which • Transcendence (departure of the soul from the body during sleep, flight,
another benandante or Angel of God appeared to them, beating a "drum", and called residence in both this and the other world);
them for their first "soul-journey"; they went on soul-journeys four times a year, at the • Ritual transformation (into an animal, a flame, a butterfly... and back into
so-called quattro Tempora (the four periods of fertility rites relating to the turn of the human form);
seasons, incorporated into the Church calendar); then their bodies became lifeless and • Specific time for magic rites (at night/in the dead of night - as a code for
had to be left that way for several hours, without being moved or rolled over, so that open contact time);
their souls could return to them; the benandanti were protectors of the community and
• Isolation at special places outside the village with semantic characteris-
antagonists of witches; they fought with them on remote plainlands, where both the
tics marking them out as beyond (a deserted watermill, a graveyard, remote
benandanti and the witches arrived mostly riding a cat, a rabbit or another animal; a
plainlands, etc.);
victory of the benandanti meant that there would be a good harvest, and vice versa.
The benandanti were held in high esteem and were regarded as spiritual leaders of their • Status and gender: they can be men or women, married or not, more often
community. They could cure the bewitched, see the procession of the dead and bring of post-fertile age;
news about the fate of dead relatives. The Inquisition was baffled by the benandanti's • Mediation and knowledge of the esoteric (of the future and of the past, of
persistent claim that they were fighting for God and Christ. (From Klaniczay 1984: this and of the other world, of herbs, etc.);
404-410, with evidence from other European regions about fights with witches in dreams) • Dual essence (ability to do evil/good, cast/break spells, etc.);
• Specific attitude of the community towards them (awe, respect);
It is not difficult to see that the Bulgarian veshteri also belong to the tradi- • Hereditary transmission and signs of their vocation at birth;
'I ' ' tion of European witchcraft. Veshteri (sing, veshter; now more commonly • The gift of the elected and its acquisition is associated with suffering,
1 veshtitsa/veshtitsi, translated usually as "witch") is an old general term for pain, and the idea that they are doomed. 1
people w h o are "veshti" (from vesht - competent, capable, proficient; Old
Bulgarian K^/VVTH, "know") about the esoteric. Some of their characteristics
are typologically and functionally identical to the features of the benandanti
and tdltoses, interpreted by some Hungarian scholars as shamanistic: 1
Among the Chuvash: "When the time comes, the sorceress/sorcerer must cast spells
°n someone, otherwise she/he will die. ... If their children are not taught the craft of their
A womm-veshtitsa ... lives by rivers in deserted places. ... She can tell every- Parents, they will be sickly and may even die" (CajiMHH 2002: 8, 10). Among the Bulgarians
thing that is yet to happen, she can cure all diseases, call down the Moon, make rain °n the Balkans: "Those who step on the samodivska trapeza [lit. "samodivi's table"] falls
and even floods or cause droughts ... she can become invisible and turn into different Under their power, and the samodivi will not let them be until they agree to become fortune-
animals (a goose, dog, wolf...)... When the veshtitsa falls asleep at night... her soul tellers and clairvoyants. Such people become saints and the samodivi help them speak with
departs, leaving her body as if dead, but breathing weakly. The soul, in the form of a the dead and tell the future" (according to informants from the area of Lovech, North Central
yellow-black butterfly ... flies until first cockcrow ... then it returns to the body and Bulgaria) - IIonoB P. 1999: 286; emphasis added.

188 189

l b »
 T r a n s c e n d e n c e a n d d u a l e s s e n c e is c o m m o n to s h a m a n h o o d and and misfortunes ... separate or reunite husbands and wives, transform young
veshterstvo/witchcraft. There are accounts of residence in both this and the men into reindeer and young women into does ... and change them back into
otherworld and the so-called transportations (prenasyaniyo) among the Bul- human form" (MapHHOB 1914: 213; the same evidence about the Chuvash in
garians from the end of the nineteenth century: "Women who were in delirium CanMHH 2002: 4; M e c a p o m 2000: 209, 213). These parallels attest to the
for some time during a severe illness become the most famous sorceresses and continuity of this type of concepts and ritual behaviour in different territories,
diviners; after recovering, they believe they were transported to the other world evidence of which is also provided by Arrian in the second century: "Thrake
and tell what they have seen there, and it is believed that they have acquired a was a nymph proficient in sorcery and herbs who could expel suffering by
special power or gift to do magic" (EaccaHOBHH 1891: 76-77). T h e concepts means of-herbs but also cause suffering, similarly to Medea, A g a m e d e and the
of sleep as trance as well as of transformations into different animals and notorious Krokodike" (Arrianus. Bithyn. Fr. 13. - T M : 306; emphasis added).
birds are typical of the so-called Hungarian shamanism, classical shamanhood, These mythical names, however, are associated with oral Thracian Orphism 3
and European witchcraft in general (Jaimoukha 2001: 144; M e c a p o m 2000: and are quite far from the policies of the Inquisition and the imposition of the
<> III 208, 210; Hoppal 1999: 60). 2 Both the flight of witches (in sleep) and the soul "global'Vcharismatic religions, which reduced maguses and mediator-demons
journey of shamans (in cataleptic trance) involve departure of the soul from the to "good" and "evil", including in the context of folklore. In the mediaeval
body, which remains lifeless. "[The following] fall into a deep or long sleep: patriarchal rural community, where initiations were esoteric, the distinction
sorceresses, witches, women-samovili [wood nymphs], dragon-men, who walk between priests and magicians or sorcerers and their abilities and acts seems
> 1 across the clouds, underground and in other places in their sleep" (MapHHOB obvious. In other words, it was consonant especially with the community's late
1914: 227; emphasis added). The fact that a bayachka (medicine-woman) will normative system, which functioned not "in the n a m e o f . . . " but "to the benefit
fall asleep at the end of the ritual (of expelling disease among the Bulgarians) is of..." During the Late Middle Ages, witches c a m e to be associated throughout
interpreted as "symbolic transportation to the other world, to which she must Europe with evil, with the unclean and the "devil" (the source of their "knowl-
edge and power to do magic"), while medicine-men/women came to be associ-
'take' the disease" (ToaopOBa 1989: 69).
ated with good. T h e attitude of the Chuvash towards the graves of witches is
Both in the spheres of witchcraft and shamanhood, the relevant figures and
similar to that of the Bulgarians towards presumable vampires (CaJiMHH 2002:
spirits have a dual essence. In Siberia, this applies to the shamans themselves,
8; HnKOHOBa 2001: 146, 147). In the Bulgarian, Balkar, Chuvash and other
who are free td decide whether they will apply their gift for constructive or
traditions, a clear distinction is m a d e between medicine-men/women and
destructive purposes, as well as to the concepts of the dual essence of a being/
witches/sorceresses, and there is an ambivalent attitude towards witches/sor-
spirit that is both good and evil. A well-known example of this is the belief that
ceresses almost everywhere (also among the Komi, Mordvin, Udmurt, Bashkir,
veneration of ongon spirits and their dwelling-places will bring good fortune,
Tatars, Chuvash and others). This "black-and-white" differentiation and dis-
and that their neglect or offence will bring misfortune; the concepts of disease
tinction of the figures endowed with magic powers is probably a later p h e n o m -
spirits as harm-doers and protectors - when Nganasan shamans contact and
enon. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Horvath suggested that the Hun-
identify them, they get the following answer: "If such a sickness would come to
garian tdltoses (men as well as women) had originally been healers and advis-
your people, you would call for us and w e help you" (Lintrop 1996a, with
ers, diviners and sacrificers, and that the differentiation of their functions (in-
References), etc. In the beliefs of the Nanai, the dual nature of spirits is mani-
cluding as male and female) occurred at a later period. A m o n g the Finns, heal-
fested also as one-way transformation (from good into evil): "Those w h o want
ers in the pre-Christian age (known only from the sagas) were also diviners
to lure and steal somebody else's spirit pour blood [of a pig or rooster] on the
(Talve 1997: 231). The evidence from the Volga Region, where there are great
ground; the spirit, which has never tried bloody food before, remains with the
similarities between sorcerers/sorceresses, healers, diviners, etc. among the
thief but, upon drinking the blood, becomes evil and dangerous even for its new
different peoples (HnKOHOBa 2001: 145), also attests to a presumable single
master" (EyjiraKOBa 2001:35). In the Bulgarian folk tradition, too, the veshtitsal
flgure in ancient times which had magic spell-casting, divining and healing
HI witch has a dual nature: both a malevolent and a benevolent figure, she can heal
Powers. "Back in pagan times, the Chuvash healer and sorcerer were one and
as well as "bring various diseases, troubles and misfortunes upon people, and tne
same person." Whereas healers could break spells and heal (through incan-
even kill them, as well as vice versa - she can chase away diseases ... troubles ta
tions), this was more often done by the sorcerer who had cast the spell and
2
In the night before the day of the Holy Trinity, the Chuvash tukhatmash leave their
in i body in bed, "turn into ... a dog, cat, pig; a bird; a tub, cloth ... and set off (on a broomstick of
3
poker) to do magic ... sometimes they create a whirlwind and enter it"; their main meeting- , For more on Medea, a "priestess-magus" of the Great Mother Goddess, see OOJI. An.
place and place of action was the graveyard - CajiMHH 2002: 4-5. 120-121.

190 191

k
 ^T

cations and specific relationships with the animistic conceptual sphere. T h e

could remove it most quickly and easily. In some northern regions, "witches are
acts of the Bulgarian bayachki unambiguously treat the "patient's" body and
identified with healers, and both figures are ascribed satanic powers and con-
psyche at a sub-existential level which may be defined provisionally as a hu-
nections with shaitans" ( M e c a p o m 2000: 213, 217-218). T h e Chuvash priest
man energy field. T h e "healing" ritual itself is designed precisely to transform
called tOMac, WMca /uoMca can see the past, the present and the future; in the
the latter. Thus, in some rituals it is "destroyed" and "restored" as an entity
event of family misfortune or illness he establishes the cause and shows how it
under a n e w name, through many "otherworldly" parameters, in the "other world"
can be removed; the lOMga has an especially important, apotropaic function in
(in terms of place, time, attributes and acts; see descriptions of healing rituals in
the rites of passage (birth, marriage, death); it is he who points out the site of the
TojtopoBa 1987: 62-63). Nor d o veshteri undergo the typical of shamans stage-
future kiremet in a newly founded village; back in the past, no personal or
by-stage initiation associated with specific family/clan spirits, i.e. with the ani-
communal sacrificial offering could be m a d e without a WMga, who saw in his
mistic sphere. Witches and medicine-men/women or healers cannot be linked
dreams what sacrifice had to be offered and where (HiiKOHOBa 2001: 148).
to the so-called black and white shamans (irrespective of whether they are
T h e WMga is an elected one and a medium; he is in contact with the gods, he can
analyzed as later projections of a dualistic original being), where colour sym-
cast spells, and send and cure diseases; although he has a special costume, he
bolizes the power to communicate with different levels and spirits of the uni-
usually wears normal clothes in an unusual way (CaJiMHH 2002: 18-28).
verse as well as the specific time of conducting shamanic ceremonies. In this
There is hardly any doubt that the similarities/parallels between shamanhood connection, it is noteworthy that the "classical" time for the "transportations" of
and European witchcraft come from archaic in origin, parallelly existing belief figures with magic powers is at night (among the Bulgarians, sorceresses "cast
systems diachronically recreated and manifested in a specific way in-different spells only at night, when the devils have assembled and can teach and help
ethno-cultural territories. This is probably the reason for the parallels between them" - MapHHOB 1914: 151; the Mordvin vedun flies over the houses in the
different figures in the folktales, concepts and rituals of different peoples. In village like a fireball every night - HnKOHOBa 2001: ,146).
folk tradition, an original ambivalent idea may gradually evolve into different
One of the significant differences between shamans and'Bulgarian veshteri
personified aspects. Thus, the parallelly manifested (in different territories)
|j;|l|ljl.l*Ill lies in the ritual costume/nudity opposition. These two opposite states practi-
symbolic system of folklore has been assigned new meanings and functions
cally have one and the same purpose: contact with and entry into the other
ill 1 over the centuries. That is precisely why the similar phenomena under review
world. A m o n g the Bulgarians on the Balkans, ritual removal of all or some
here should not be associated and identified through one of the forms that emerged
clothes (as a symbolic behaviour and entry into another state) is typical of the
in time - that is, as shamanic. According to Salmin (CaJiMHH 2002: 3 , 1 1 , 27)
nestinari, of zhitomamnitsi/vrazhalitsi (see below), of various healing rituals
"the existing concepts of shamanism are inadequate for the Chuvash wjuaq•••
and incantations, of the midnight excursions of girls outside the village during
and he cannot be referred to as a shaman". Despite the similarities of the Tatar
Lent, of various male rituals (ritual chasing away of serpents and capture of
imche/baguchi with the shaman, "owing to the lack of concrete evidence it is
"live fire", ploughing up of the village fields with twin oxen led by naked twin
definitely impossible to speak of the existence of different forms of shamanic
Mothers), etc. The concept of contact and mediation is also expressed in the
kamlanie among the Turks in the Northern Volga Region" (HnKOHOBa 2001:
•rnmediate contact with the earth (unlike the shaman, who sits on a sacred "me-
145). Here I would add Hultkranz's proposition (Hultkranz 1 9 7 9 : 1 1 9 , 8 5 ) that
diator skin") - in the ritual trampling of clay, ritual rolling on the ground (in the
"In principle ... 'medicine-manhood' and shamanism constitute an individually
Meadows by girls in chemises during Lent), in some memorial practices, among
oriented conceptual and behavioural complex" and that the medicine-man model re
shteri.
in North and South America "is ... somewhat inappropriately called shaman-
ism". Incidentally, both the parallels and differences between veshtersto/v/itch- The available evidence about the different types of figures with magic powers
n
craft and shamanhood become obvious if w e look at their contents at their two ° the Balkans, and about the priests/aksakal in Chuvash and Tatar rituals,
a
main levels of manifestation - in the sphere of concepts and.narratives, and oi ttests to their calling from on high and contact with a Supreme Deity which
rituals. Thus, w e will find that most typological parallels are actually rooted in 's the source of their extraordinary magic powers. This is also typical of one of
different original concepts and worldviews as well as different types of ritual ^ most specific rituals and personages in Bulgarian folklore - the brodnitsi/
^zhelitsi w h o call down the Moon - which have inherited the old belief that
systems. " e luminaries and sky deities are a theophany.
Unlike shamans, Bulgarian and Chuvash veshteri do not have multiple sou&
When there is a lunar eclipse they say that the Moon was called down by vrazhelitsi
The accounts of the soul leaving the body and the "geography" of its journey 8 *ith
incantations and spells. ... The vrazhelitsi who call down the Moon must be two
are not identical with those of the specifically shamanic soul journey (which' s ~a mother and daughter who have milked [suckled a baby]. Their accessories are a
undertaken by one of the shaman's souls) or with its "landscape" - as personifr
193
192
 w

white copper bowl, magic herbs, and a sieve. According to "eyewitness" accounts, initial situation ("the older woman shat and ate some of her s h i t . . . and then the
while they chanted over them and sprinkled around water from the bowl, the Moon Moon ... rose and slowly climbed up ... to the sky"). From a folkloristic point
"came down ... in front of the house ... turned into a calf and shone", the calf "spread of view, the act of separation of a Luminary/Deity and Man may be interpreted
its legs apart" and they milked it, one on one side and the other on the other side [of the also as a new anal "birth".
calf, i.e. from two directions]. "When they milked it dry, the Moon turned from a calf In these rituals, the sky theophany also has another, predictable purpose -
into a white-bearded old man ... red as blood - stopped shining brightly ... sat on a
namely, to serve the needs of the army which, as we well know, is part of the
chair ... as if petrified ... Then the older of the two women ... said, 'Come on,
institution of the state: "They said that when there was to be a battle, they
daughter... it's clear it won't rise otherwise!'... Saying this, the older woman shat and
would call down the Moon ... and feed the army with the M o o n ' s milk so that it
ate some of her shit... and then the Moon... rose and slowly climbed up ... to the sky;
only then did the Moon begin to clear up and began shining clearly ... Its milk was very would be fit and strong and therefore able to defeat [the enemy]" (ByKajj,HHOB
curative... a sip of this milk is enough to make any pain go away..." (ByKaOTHOB 1896: 167-168, from the Sofia area; emphasis added). If we accept the hypoth-
1896: 167-168, from the Sofia area; emphasis added) esis that these rituals are of Orphic origin (for more on the act of "calling down
the M o o n " as a relict of Thracian Orphism - "a sacred act of the Great God-
T h e different forms of the luminaries (as a dappled cow, a calf, an old man) dess-Mother ... Ancient practice was semantically reduced to magic for fertility
as well as the belief that "the earth stands on the horns of an ox or a buffalo" and healing" - see Hristova 1997: 107-108), then they must have survived in
(MapHHOB 1984: 53) are part of the Indo-European cosmogonic concepts of late Bulgarian folklore not least thanks to the similar cosmogonic principles
"the sky bull". 4 Similarly to the Full M o o n , the Sun can be called down too, but and ideas inherited also from the ancient Bulgars (for the astral nature and
only on Enyovden at the time of the summer solstice. 5 "The Sun is God", and theophany of Tora/Tura as an old man or elder, see chapter "Tura/Teiri/Tangra:
the Sun and the Moon are brother and sister. The Sun is also conceived of as a Dues in Actu"). The sorceresses who call down the Moon and the Sun are a
baby buffalo or a calf (TeoprHeBa 1983: 23, 26). The earliest accounts of the substratum of an ancient high type of mediators that can be traced back to ar-
act of calling down the M o o n are offered by Aristophanes (fifth century BC), chaic cosmogonic and astral beliefs. They transform and have power over the
Theocritus (third century BC), Virgil (first century BC), and others (Hristova Sun and the M o o n (in the form of a bull/cow or an old man, "who sat on a chair
1997:1-25,103-108). 6 The act of calling down and "milking" a luminary in its as if petrified") from which they draw celestial energy - through the power of
apogee (only "a Full Moon can be milked, and that is why they call down only a gestures, words and ritual accessories. They do not travel (in sleep/trance) to
full luminary/Moon" - MapHHOB 1914: 183) is equivalent to drawing out and fight or to look for a lost or abducted soul, neither do they transform them-
mastering the energy principle embodied in the Supreme Sky God. This belief selves or have an antagonist. It is this that makes them fundamentally different
as well as the ability to "call d o w n " and "lift up" this energy principle is a from, for example, the Hungarian tdltoses who fight each other in the form of
relict of a high type of religiosity, of direct contact and communion with God. "goats, pigs, birds, bulls ... of different colour" (Klaniczay 1984: 412) and are
This concept is not articulated explicitly in the available sources because of the typologically closer to the concept of the shaman's soul journey. "The spells
invariable taboo on articulating secret knowledge and names in esoteric com- with which sorceresses/vrazhelitsi call down the Moon from the sky are the
munities. It is implicit in the semantic subtext of the "reverse cycle" of acts most powerful o n e s . . . . They say ... that is when there is an eclipse" (MapHHOB
which form a complete whole by sending the Moon back up and restoring the 1914: 183). The Chuvash believe that there is an eclipse when the evil vupar
swallows (lit. "gobbles down") the Sun/Moon; in the northern regions he is
4 known also in the form of a witch/old woman, and that is also how the witches
For more on the bull nature of the sky gods and fertility, on the bull and lightning as
symbols of the sky deities, on the eponymous designation and bull theophany of the sky god themselves are called in some villages ( M e c a p o m 2000: 48).
since primeval times, on bull's horns and their comparison to the crescent, etc., see Ejinajte The sphere of veshterstvolvjitchcraft reviewed here is actually based on
1995: 98, 105-11,5, with References. the idea of the God-Man, the idea of the unity of the human soul and body as a
5
In some Bulgarian legends, the Sun can be called down "only midway between the sublimating and emanating, transforming and transformed, able and ruling entity
earth and the sky ... and then it shines very strongly. ... It was called down by sorceresses
equivalent to the Cosmos. The available evidence about the different types of
who were women without a husband, using the navel of an infant newly born of an unmarried
woman, with which ithey also lifted the Sun back up to the sky. The Sun can be called down figures with magic powers and priests on the Balkans (both in ancient and later
only on Enyovden; then the witch goes round the village naked, but no one must see her. Her times) as well as about the priests/aksakal in Chuvash and Tatar rituals, attests
purpose is to steal the fertility of the fields and the cows. The Sun turns into a dappled cow, to their calling from on high and contact with a Supreme Deity which is the
and the milk milked from it is very wholesome" (TeoprHeBa 1983: 17). source of their extraordinary magic powers. In the later folk tradition in differ-
6
Aristoph. Neph. 749-755; Theocr. II48-52; Verg., Buc. VIII69; Hor,. Epod. 5,45; 17: e
nt parts of Bulgaria, too, the gift of healing comes from God or a Saint ("It is
Plin., H. N. XXX 7; Hippolytus, Refut. omn. haer. IV 37.
• II
194 195

I ull
 God Who sends the orisnitsi [enchantresses]" - TTonoB P. 1999: 290; empha- (right to take over the job of looking after the Keremet]. I have no idea who he himself
m jpassed it on to. ... He used to tell me, "Do you know that if someone upsets/angers me
sis added). The Chuvash tOMag begins many incantations and spells by invoking
the Supreme Tura ( M e c a p o m 2000: 267-270, 297-298). " N o one becomes a ,<.... I can break off a twig from the Keremet... and when/as the twig dries, so will the
M ...person dry up and die"... This is not something that everyone knows how to and can
lOMag of his own free will; their abilities are said to come from Tura; they
know everything and are trusted completely ... 'You don't need to read books t do... Those who have looked after the site also know how to and can practice sorcery
m J and divination.... This is.transmitted from generation to generation... (Informant Roza
to people, for we have our tOMag - which is the same as having Tura!' the
N. Chentaeva, RN August 2002, village of Novoe Aksubaevo; for earlier but incom-
Chuvash told the p r i e s t . . . . Some compared the tojuag also to the Orthodox God
m plete information, see Mecapom 2000: 43-44)
[emphasis added]." The Chuvash regarded the rojudg as a spiritual leader, a
I, el
chosen one and a medium, and said he had turned into a deity (CaJiMHH 2002: In the Bulgarian and Chuvash folk tradition, not only medicine-men/women
Hi 18-28). One legend has it that the first tOMag was a woman by-the will of Kiremet, but also the leaders of rites and ceremonies possess the gift of healing and
a double and one of the hypostases of the Supreme Tura. In the event of sickness i divination. These are the tOMag, thefirst-born Balkar in the Northern Caucasus
sent by Kiremet, it was the wudg w h o said exactly what wrong had caused it • (tunguchla - ^>KypTy6aeB 2004: 3; tunguch - R N 2005, Kabardino-Balkaria)
and what sacrifice had to be offered to ensure that the sick person would re- who have "magic powers", the hereditary keeper of the Kiremet w h o is a priest,
cover ( M e c a p o m 2000: 44). It was he who chose the site of the future kiremet sorcerer and diviner, the Bulgarian startsi (sing, starets, lit. "old man", "el-
in a newly founded village. According to one legend, the Chuvash WMga Chemen der") "who presided over village votive offerings ... diviners of the past and
told his relatives "not to bury him in the graveyard but in a special place in the future ... people possessed by some force"; the same "position ... is sometimes
field which he pointed out to them, because after his death he would b e Irzam taken by a staritsa [lit. "old woman"] who is none other than the healer or diviner"
[an evil deity]. His relatives fulfilled his will. In their superstition, the Chuvash ' (MapHHOB 1914: 242-245; emphasis added; for more on the oldwoman who was
revere him as the most evil of all evil gods and offer him the most and the a village elder and who recognized the dragon by one nostril and "ordered her
biggest sacrifices" (<DyKC 1834, JNb 5: 281-283). According to another legend, fellow-villagers to found a new village", see r i o n o B P. 1999: 287).
on the site of the city of Cheboksary "there lived two big/chief Chuvash uoMqa, I would venture to generalize that the institution of the elders and leaders
Chebak and Sar. On the site of the cathedral there once was a large Kiremet, who possess unusual powers in the folk ritual system on the Balkans was inher-
where Chebak lived; Sar also lived in a Kiremet, on the site of the present ited from the ancient indigenous and from the ancient Bulgarian faith-rrites in
Vladimir Monastery. The Chuvash say that when the Russians began building which there are n o traces of shamanhood. In the narratives about this and the
the cathedral a terrible storm broke out, with thunder, lightning, rain and hail. other world, there are also other figures who are mythical in origin and have
The wind felled the trees in the Kiremet, and the evil spirit who lived in one of unusual transcendent powers that connect them with the sphere of veshterstvo
them flew out, hissing and shrieking. That is where the name Cheboksary comes (or vice versa!). In Bulgarian epic poems and folktales these are, for example,
from" ((Dyicc 1834, JNs 10,170-171). The "high" relationship between the uoMca the so-called zmeychavi hdrti'or "dragon-people" w h o are "knowledgeable
and Kiremet also underlies the later belief that "diviners, medicine-women and about everything", and the yunatsi (sing, yunak, lit. "hero"). In popular belief,
sorceresses arefriends with Shoitan, from w h o m they have received their magic one could tell that a child "would become a yunak ... by a great external sign"
and healing powers"; the witches themselves, w h o are "accomplices of Shoitan (a childf>onv with wings, with a star on the forehead; with a caul, with three or
[Tura's antagonist], turn into Kiremets after death ... and people offer them nine hearts...); such children were also believed to have been born through
sacrifices at their burial sites" ( M e c a p o m 2000: 3 8 , 4 0 , 4 2 ) . T h e keeper of the otherworldy intervention - they were believed to have been born "of inter-
Keremet in Chuvash; villages (who is "a special, revered villager - Kiremet course between an ordinary woman and a dragon, between a dragoness and a
pkhagan", known as the "cleaner, shepherd, guard" of the Kiremet - IlaJiJiac personable young man, between a samodiva a n d . . . ayunak who is a young man
2001: 159, 167), w h o is responsible for keeping the site clean and inviolable, or shepherd, of an ordinary woman but then nursed by a samovila" (MapHHOB
is also a veshter: 1914: 161, 162).

There was a man there who used to clean and look after the Keremet... but he "The dragon-child ... can be told by ... the wings under the armpits ... [these
died and then no one wished to take on the job. ... They are afraid and don't want to wings] grow and the child can/Zy across the clouds with them. Its wings shine like gold.
have anything to do with the Keremet because there is evil there.... If you take on this • • • The dragon-man is a very great yunak...; when a cloud of hail or whirlwind ap-
•ii I duty/job, you must know exactly what you are doing or otherwise something bad may pears, this will be a hala [dragon]; he will lie down and when he falls asleep, he flies up
happen to your family. ... The son of the man who used to clean the site told me ho^ in the clouds, fights with the hala and defeats it. He must not be woken up during that
his father had passed a silver ring on to him so that he could clean the spring [i.e. the time, for if he is the hala will overpower him. ... Such yunatsi have ... usually three

196 197
 w

hearts, but there were also [yunatsi] with ... eight, and even with ten... These hearts more able than the others... The dragon-man is knowledgeable about every-
are asleep and wake up gradually ... the last one is the strongest, the most powerful; thing" (according to popular belief in the villages of Stoilovo, Brushlyan,
when it wakes up the yunak becomes invincible and unstoppable, and performs super- Gramatikovo and elsewhere - BoHeBa 1996: 365; emphasis added). Because
vi human feats..." The yunatsi defeat all invisible beings and even the elements them- of the belief in their ambivalent and peculiar essence, such figures (resident
j LI selves; they outrace the Sun; they fly with their horses in the clouds and reach the both in this and the other world, born with otherworldly intervention) were
upper world; they descend to the lower world; they go to the end of the world; they go isolated from the normative system of patriarchal farmers: "Although they are
i''W to the living water and take some of it; the yunatsi fight with dragons "and always respected and revered ... popular belief prohibits such dragon-people from
ovcerpower them, capturing them and making them their fellows and sworn broth- taking part in rites and religious customs. Thus, they must not becomepolaznitsi,
I •"If
ers..." (MapHHOB 1914: 157,162-164; emphasis added)
I i'-l koledari, sourvakari, rinachi and kukeri [male ritual figures] ... sworn broth-
i.y The unusual origins, the leaving of the body and travel in the upper and the ers... they must not wed and baptize us" (MapHHOB 1914: 158). There is simi-
lower worlds, and last but n o t least, night-time feats are mythical storylines lar evidence from the nineteenth century aboutthe Chuvash witches (tukhatmash)
••I who "are not allowed to attend village sacrifices" (BnimieBCKHH 2001: 249-
related to the initiatory value-ordeals, of the hero-yunak who "passes the path
1 250).
Mm i of kings ... in order to do that which none, of the mortals can do" (BOHKOB
1994:41). The oppositions constituting yunakr-hood (through the time and place Parallel with the mytho-narratives and some conceptions in the Bulgarian
\i of events - as high/low, day/night, earthly/otherworldy, etc.) and its "global" ritual system, the idea of transcendence is manifested also through actual physi-
aspect are manifested in the constant renewal and occurrence of Order, through cal movement in space. The Bulgarian magyosnitsi (sorceresses) will master a
I I I• ' l|u||
l
the recovery of universally significant values and precious things (such as wa- given territory "physically" (not statically in sleep) by walking the length and
|ii ill the breadth of the territory, walking crosswise and/or in a circle - a form of
ters, fertility, territories, etc.). In folk epic poems, the "universal antagonist of
the hero" is the serpent/dragon; they are in fact equal and equivalent ("The sacralization and mastering by changing directions. Unlike the Hungarian tdltoses
1
in
i antagonist is the hero-yunak himself, his opposite double" - BOHKOB 1994: 50, and the Italian benandanti, they "enact" the contents of the ritual, and do not
III I Ik 5 8 , 6 3 ) . "People in the village of Brushlyan [in the Strandja region, Southeast- experience and recognize them through an inner vision (as in the case of the
ern Bulgaria], also remember a dragon-girl. Her name was Marina and she riding of an animal by the benandanti or the shaman's drum/animal-spirit). A
was very s t r o n g . . . " T h e name here is hardly accidential. Veneration of Saint typical example here is the so-called brodnitsa, mamnitsa (lit. "deceiver") or
i
> lllll Marina is specific to the region. She appears in Enyovden songs also under the zhitomamnitsa (lit. "wheat-deceiver"), who steals other people's fertility and
' f
11 if name and in the form of Domna Tsaritsa, Dennitsa (one of the n a m e s of the well-being.
!• I L| 11 Morning Star), a dragoness, a king's daughter - all of which are mutually
J| • Back in the past, they would take the maksiilya [fertility] on Ignazhden [Saint
•i ill replaceable folk hypostases of the Great Mother Goddess in Thracian religion
Ignatius' Day, 20 December]. This means making sure that what other people have will
(HeiiKOBa 1992: 31-33, with References; OOJI B. 1996: 32). The genealogy of
come to your house [fertility of animals and high butter content of their milk]. ... A
the Sun in folksongs and of the son-yunak in folktales ("the dragon snatched the tailor had a wife. She took a little box, daubed herself with shit [i.e. here we find
king's daughter, but her son was a yunak. H e descends to the lower world, finds another form of the anal "principle" of passage to another dimension] and turned into a
the dragon, slays him and takes away the king's daughter" - MapHHOB 1914: hen... cluck-cluck ... and went to the neighbour's house ... and took the maksiilya...
i-Hil 164; emphasis added) is probably inherited from the same line (Great Mother The tailor watched h e r . . . and hid the box. Clucking around the house, she watched the
• "it Goddess - Son Sun/Fire). As a rule, high deities are " m o t h e r ' s " , and not tailor and he threw her the box. She daubed herself and turned back into a woman...
•>i Ii "father's" children (Tura/Teiri and Kiremet, too, have mothers only). (Informants Zhelyazka Ivanova, born 1919, and Zheyka Todorova, born 1926, Apx.
"1 This type of "magic" figures also have a well-known, specific sign of elec- ^ M , PH. 5. II. 5. village of Lozarevo, near Karnobat, Southeastern Bulgaria, 1989)
111 • [The brodnitsi, zhitomamnitsi] [g]o round the fields at night, stealing the crop of
tion: a ritual extension. As a universal attribute (as, for example, the surplus
the fields and taking it to the fields of another village ... that is why the village field-
bone/bones acquired by shamans upon initiation; the wings of the dragon-man;
keepers must begin their rounds early in the evening. ... The brodnitsa will go to the
the wooden spoon of the zhitomamnitsa; the "naked tail", as big as an index
' l e lds... without being seen by anybody, and will take along a bare warp-beam and a
finger, of Chuvash witches - M e c a p o m 2000: 208), it has different symbolic s
Poon... She will strip stark naked, mount the warp-beam, stick the handle of the
in | meanings and forms. In Bulgarian folklore, the ritual extension is a sign of the s
Poon in her bottom [could this be another form of the extension securing passage to
peculiar status of figures with a "dragon nature" in the sphere of veshteri and Mother status?] and ... go up to three times round the fields she will be picking [she
yunatsi: "Dragon-people had tails. This means that such people were very §°es round the fields three times, crosswise]. Then she will stop, take the spoon out of
ner
strong." Dragon-children (boys and girls) born with signs "are stronger and bottom, put it in her mouth, and then put it back in her bottom... Then she will

199
 Jllllll

stand in front of the fields, make a sign and say, "Are you here, Enyo! Why don't you ferent "forms" in rites determine the varying appearance and sequence of the
ask me why I've come?" 7 When she utters this question the whole field bows down, "musical" forms themselves. The flight of witches and, especially, their zoo-
and only the king of the field remains upright. [The king of the field are the stalks that morphic transformations (in sleep) are known from the relevant concepts and
have two or three ears of wheat each.] ... The brodnitsa tramples and plucks the stalks narratives; 8 they do not occur in real-life rituals and are not physically re-
of the King. ... If she is stealing the crop for herself, she throws the stalk in her own enacted and articulated "musically". It seems to m e that the expressive devices
field; if she is stealing the crop for the fields of another village, she goes and throws the and sound " m a s k s " in the so-called "ecstatical states" -. of, for example, some
stalks in the fields of the other village. ... There are many cases in which women and Chuvash toMaq or Mordvin medicine-women (ueeucb-6a6a)9 - are universal
I men have been caught red-handed stealing the crop in the fields... (MapHHOB 1914: behavioural models of witches or figures with "magic" powers, which are not
505, 184) specific to a particular ethnic group or territory. Generally, "witchcraft" is prac-
tised* by specific figures with typologically c o m m o n traits (at the level of uni-
In Bulgarian folktales and "true stories" about witches or sorceresses stealing
v e r s a l ) . But their parallel manifestation does not eliminate the differences be-
fertility, the characters undergo transformation in order to achieve their pur-
tween the ethno-cultural traditions that gave rise to them. For the same reasons,
poses (which can be summed up as acquisition and overmastering): they un-
l> III' I disagree with the thesis of the shamanic origins of the sieve, which is said to
dergo two-way ornitho-/anthropomorphic transformation and passage to an-
have been often used by the Hungarian tdltoses as a drum for telling the future,
other ritual-extistential status, in which the field or birds "recognize" the
divination and, especially, in healing rites (during which "the healing w o m a n
I 'I mamnitsa. W h a t is c o m m o n to some of these figures are their anal ritual ges-
would beat the sieve with a knife or a wooden spoon over the sick" - Hoppal
tures and acts, in which the brodnitsi (stealing the fertility of the fields) prob-
1984: 435-438; similarly in Klaniczay 1984: 414). 1 0 A similar practice (of tell-
ably engage also in symbolic anal intercourse. A notable parallel in this re-
ing the future, the cause of the disease and various ways of healing with the help
spect is the Chuvash "land-stealing" ritual; it is conceived of as a marriage
of a sieve) existed among the Finns until the mid-twentieth century, but this
between a young man and the land-as-bride, which he "leads away" to become
practice is not regarded as a relict of shamanhood (for details, see Talve 1997:
his property (for a description of the ritual, see M e c a p o m 2000: 62-63).
229). While divination or healing with, for example, beans in a sieve is c o m -
I'I'! ! The vrazhelitsi/mamnitsi came out on the nights of Gergyovden, Enyovden,
mon in Bulgarian folk tradition, I would never associate it with shamanhood.
Vidovden (Vida's Day) the Day of sveta A n a Lyatna or Summer Saint Anne -
And; moreover, the sieve is not an artefact but a universal ritual "instrument" of
Ignazhden, the Day of sveta Ana Zimna or Winter Saint Anne ("patron saint of
divination and magic-making, and a classical symbol of fertility in all agrarian
sorceresses"- IloiiOB P. 1991: 149, 154), which points us to the widespread
cultures. In Bulgarian rites, the sieve is used to "call d o w n " the M o o n together
twin calendar model (i.e. twice a year, in winter and in summer) in Bulgarian
with the podnitsa (clay baking tin) carried by the zhitomamnitsa when "steal-
ritual tradition. A similar winter-summer calendar-based activity (unlike
ing"; the magic function of the sieve also connects it indirectly with percussion
shamanhood) seems to have been typical also of European witchcraft, the Volga
instruments (such as various bells and the tupan) which are believed to "chase
Region and the Northern Caucasus. The Chuvash tukhatmash were most active
away" disease. The presence of the "chasing-away element", which is undoubt-
in the period around the day of the Holy Trinity and, moreover, on Wednesdays
edly typical of shamanhood as well, certainly does not mean that the conception
r (CaJiMHH 2002: 4-5). The Italian benandanti fought with witches for the fertil-
I II of the percussion instrument as a means of restoring order and harmony, of
ity of their village four times a year, in the so-called quattro Tempora. In the
I ,' ' cleansing bodily vibrations, has been forgotten. It seems that only doctrinal
l!
Northern Caucasus, "There was a popular belief among some tribes that on
U Asia remembers the high purpose of the vibrating body, whilst various authors
spring nights ... witches flew together astride an assortment of domestic and
wild animals" (Jaimoukha 2001: 144).
11 8
• !• I believe that one of the most important fundamental differences between According to Domotor (1984: 428, with References), "The ecstasy of the tdltos is
veshterstolvjitchcraft and shamanhood is their different musical-stylistic ex- not mentioned in the trials. On the other hand, we do hear about witches being in an ecstatical
state."
pression. Let me remind the reader that the "musical" and physical behaviour of 9
The WMag "sang, danced, wept, neighed like horses, performed various miracles" and
shamans is itself an expression of their vision about the otherworld (of the when they were in such a state they were able to mediate between the living and the dead
shaman's journey, of spirits and their songs, etc.); their unpredictable and dif- (CaJiMHH 2002: 26-27); in Mordvin villages, "medicine-women healed only when they were
iii" •n a peculiar state of excitation which, they achieved by drinking vodka, eating and fumigating
themselves with incense ... and then falling into convulsions. Only then did they proceed
7
In the Sofia region, "the sorceress ... puts apodnitsa [clay baking dish] on her back *ith their healing rites" (LUa6aeB, MajitqeB 2004).
10
and takes a spoon, sticks it next to the podnitsa ... and says in somebody else's field, 'O For more on. an analogous healing ritual with incantation in the Strandja region in
wheat, come over to me!'" (ApHayiioB 1971: 260). Bulgaria, see HeiiKOBa 2004: 177-178.

200 201

k
 1
ill
111,,1
Il'll
llll
l-li follow by inertia the everyday explanations of late Bulgarian folklore (for ex- 206, 207). He does not ask himself why the selfsame sorcerers and healers, as
I1 J ample, the thesis that various bells and the tupan merely chased away evil). On well as "the bagpiper's prayer" (before the wedding procession sets off), in-
.,,'1
the Balkans, the "chasing-away" function of percussion instruments is the low- voke Tura, or who is H e ( M e c a p o m 2000: 207). Of course, it is thanks to
I'I
11 ered, accessible level of an archaic high concept of union with the Supreme external observers like Meszaros that we have invaluable evidence about rites
1'
and with the ideal other world, which "speaks out silently" also through the and rituals from the fifteenth century onwards, evidence which they interpreted
111
ideophones in burial accessories (bells of various shapes and sizes). Irrespec- according to the possibilities and knowledge available in their time.
Ml'
tive of the explanations of the carriers of folklore, the resounding ideophones
'i
! 'Ill and membranophones in rites are an act of entry and possession - even as a not
' "ll consciously recognized substratum readily explained away in pragmatic terms The various ritual states of intermediacy, contact arid "passage", as well as
j "',[ as something that is of purely utilitarian benefit, such as the agricultural rites the similarities among the phenomena under review, are subject to interesting
I '.I "for health". It may be worth reminding the reader at this point that shamans,
l« ill comparisons on a wide scale. Such comparisons can be productive if w e bear
'"ll" too, summon and gather the spirits in their drum, and then "heal" and chase in mind the system within which those ritual states are manifested and function.
away evil. At the same time, the tupan, which is widely used in the rites of the In this connection, I shall return t o K l a n i c z a y ' s diplomatic, albeit ambiguous,
Bulgarians and on the Balkans in some areas of Southeastern Thrace and Attica, attempt to preserve the "rights" of European witchcraft ("as a typical belief-
still "remembers" the metamorphosis it has underwent - that it was once used system of agricultural societies"), of Hungarian shamanism, and to conceptual-
i|i ipin; "to sift the grain from the chaff' - i.e. its form as a "sieve". The sieve is used as ize the tradition as a changing and moving memory:
ill- if a percussion instrument in many eastern cultures. The so-called "frame drums"
!!• |ii| (which, according to Marcuse 1975: 133, made their way into Europe from the I am fully aware that all this cannot be called shamanism proper, not even the
i J i| East) are often called sieve drums. Among the Siberian peoples, the sieve has Hungarian taltos. ... Instead of seeing in the Hungarian taltos the only accepted,
i) »fii though not uncontested specimen of Central European shamanism, it seems to me
never been used as a shaman's drum. Similarly to the relationships between
'libljl more appropriate to speak about various surviving elements of shamanism in Central
rhythm and trance, between which there is no causal and constant connection
;!M and Southern Europe, transformed and fit into the new belief-system in several distinct
1 and which "operate at the level not of nature but of culture" (Rouget 1985:91),
' Jlllf ways. The general framework in which this integration and transformation of shaman-
ii lfl|if|| the use of a musical instrument likewise follows the ethno-cultural model that istic beliefs takes place is given by witchcraft beliefs ... in Central Europe and the
|' I'll;' gave rise to it. Balkan peninsula, which, of course, does not mean that all these shamanistic motifs
[I'i ,1111 Even though it is emblematic, the drum is not a law for shamanhood, and if could be isolated and made to construct a pure shamanistic layer in these folk-beliefs.
IN ll'llll
[|| iffl| we are obssessed with the thought of finding inherited shamanic traits on the Neither can we postulate or reconstruct the kinds of shamanistic beliefs these peoples
ill 'inn'! Balkans we do not have to "import" them from Europe in the form of sieves. perhaps had before the emergence of the witchcraft beliefs. (Klaniczay 1984:414-416)
1! I il[,i ;•
Such an ambition would eliminate the past century as linear time, sending us
I.J This attempt is not convincing because of the "comfort" of an old approach
fl'l ' . i..j back to the ideas of Meszaros at the beginning of the twentieth century and to the
that is difficult to overcome and probably remains a problem for the Hungarian
Hungarian academic view of witches as descendants of shamans. If w e ignore
i i nil ii, academic community even nowadays. Introduced in the nineteenth century and fol-
" the absurd even for their time commentaries on the empirical material, we could
"in lowed by the generations after Meszaros in the twentieth,, this approach has given
I ||N extract some valuable "pure" information from the latter, including a unique
rise to the misunderstanding regarding shamanhood/shamanism among Hungarian
i' 111 piece of evidence about the combination of veshter and musician in one person:
I'll scholars based on shamanistic elements identified by structuralists. The interpreta-
J(
"Quite often, magic is practised by bagpipers ... who are idle and have more
II ' tion of the data about the Hungarian taltos as evidence of transformation of the
time for t h a t . . . it is even very likely that the wedding bagpipers who are also
traditional shamanic "protecting function" (which "is put into service... of agricul-
•i »i sorcerers/healers are direct descendants of the ancient shamans". To support
• tural fertility" - Klaniczay 1984:415-416) is an invariant of the "food needs" which
this view, the author cites Dr. Gyula Sebesgen, who "proves that the present-
ial|l according to Frazer shape behaviour in society. It was not until recently that M.
day [Hungarian] folk singers, with their hat with a feather, drumstick and drum
111 Hoppal called this into question, citing G. Laszlo (1990: 169)11 who "quite logi-
are nothing but late descendants of the shamans in.Hungarian pagan faith". In the
III cally pointed out that obvious differences which separate taltos and shaman must be
<m early twentieth century, Meszaros firmly believes that "the ancient Chuvash
taken into account as well as correspondences", and that the study of these differ-
• nil shamans ... eclipsed by Islam, Buddhism or Christianity", h a d turned into sor-
iniij ences "is still a task which has to be completed" (Hoppal 1999: 64-65).
cerers, medicine-men and healers whose shamanic attributes had "vanished
without a trace" together with the "practice of ecstasy" ( M e c a p o m 2000: 205,
"OseinkroF. 1990. Budapest: Gondolat., 158-171 (quoted from Hoppal 1999).
if
nil'
#"ii 202 203
„ i,|
> iiii
ijiif j
1 HI
 mw

While "discovering" common structures in different ethnic traditions is a and contents that belong to different epochs and beliefs. But there are no "spirit
matter of good intention and good general knowledge, the real problems and hunters" in Bulgarian folk texts. These last, together with ritual voices, require
challenges for the researcher arise in the quest for what is individual and spe- an analysis that transcends the concrete verbal and musical form. In these ritual
cific in a particular ethnic tradition. The typological parallels of different eth- texts, concepts and acts, the Beginning and the End are a perpetually changing,
nic traditions noted here are by no means exempt from the main problem in the spiral-shaped prospect, and not enthusiasm for and relief from life on earth, as
subject under review, the problem of how to interpret the available data. The another universal illusion holds. The apparent confusion and coexistence of the
data presented here (as well as other data of this kind) presuppose an interdis- earthly and the otherworldly, of devils and angels, of the living and the dead,
ciplinary analysis, and the subtext of many of them has not been commented are a vestige of a somewhat forgotten worldview, of different "images" and
thoroughly as it is presumed to be obvious to anyone trained to decode it. As an dimensions of the World Order which are not subject to spur-of-the-moment
ethnologist, I certainly do not underrate the significance of the similarities be- improvisation. The alleged "discoveries" of shamanic traits in the Bulgarian
tween different traditional heritages. However, as anyone with experience in and Balkan ethno-cultural traditions (in certain graffiti, myths and even rites)
fill this field knows well, the existence of parallel ritual and musical structures is ought to be re-examined carefully by their "authors" in order to see whether
not necessarily proof that the beliefs of different people are genetically and they are indeed "genuinely" shamanic or, rather, belong to a trans-territorial
\4
functionally related. A m o n g the hundreds of folksongs from different parts of ritual symbolic system (such as the concepts of the three-tier vertical structure
Mil of the world, the World Tree and the World River, calling from on high, the
the world one can find similar or identical melodic lines and tonal configura-
!
fj[ij"i|j tions which show beyond doubt that the subjects of different countries sing and belief in patron- and malignant spirits, different forms of transcendence, and so
play music without being afraid that they may be accused of treason. I have on). It is precisely the specific configurations, application and participation of
iiiy||
come across many typological similarities in the concepts and narratives about elements in the spiritual sphere that shape and form a given ritual-musical tradi-
llMll European witchcraft, shamanhood and Bulgarian folkloric materials, between tion and the "anthropological" experiences in the latter's image that makes it
shamanic and "classical" agricultural societies. The truth that in this narrative identifiable as a "race". That is why I am not in the least interested in, for
sphere there are psychological structures and expressive elements c o m m o n to example, the similarities between Bulgarian and Native American Indian rugs
i
different peoples has been established thanks to psychoanalytical science from or between Bulgarian and other melodic motifs, but in their meaning and "oc-
''•; the first decades of the twentieth century and some subsequent joint studies with currence" in the entity to which they belong, in the way of thinking and transmis-
anthropologists. In other words, the interpretation of similar animistic, mythi- sion of memory to the generations that create the individuality and uniqueness of
'ill
cal, creation and other concepts and stories is given a priori. Similar ritual every traditional culture.
m objects, "figures" or musical stylistic devices can serve different epochs, dif-
ferent ritual contents and worldview levels. Yet it is not the structure in itself as
• iS||j something given consisting of matter and form but the ideas infused into it that
determine and shape the essence of every tradition.
ii |Li|'-];..|Ji|
The "problem" of Bulgarian folk heritage, so to speak, is that it possesses
and "remembers" many things that are present as well as absent in the folklore
of other peoples. The Bulgarian concepts of the Universe are not less suffused
')'»"H|
with an invisible spiritual substance than those of any other shamanic or non-
j|Ui,i||||| shamanic culture. The Bulgarians, too, venerate particular places (such as hearths,
I Ml "III trees, springs, fields, vineyards, meadows, houses and graveyards) which they
believe are guarded by "good spirits ... by the souls of long-deceased fellow
villagers" (MapHHOB 1914: 243). The Bulgarian vocal and narrative tradition
1:
1 "If abounds in zoomorphic and anthropomorphic mediator figures inhabiting the
'I ll'lllllll upper and the lower realms, and residing in rivers, bridges, pools, fountains,
wells, gorges and caves (such as serpents, dragons, samovili and orisnitsi). As
a rule, these figures are dualistic in nature. Their c o m m o n abode - believed to
" ''il be "where the earthly house of God is" (MapHHOB 1914:168) - attests to their
divine/mythical origin. They are a "classical" example of synthesis of concepts
11 "liiill
I m
204 205

ill
O H
 ABBREVIATIONS

AHT TaTapcKa AKa/teMHH Ha HayKHTe

BTP BtjirapcKH TtJiKOBeH penHHK. CorpHH, Hayna H H3KycTBO, 1994.
EHM ETHorpacpCKHfl HHCTHTyT c My3eii ripn BAH
HHM H3BecTHH Ha HHCTHTyTa 3a My3HKa
HTT I H3Bopn 3a HCTopHHTa Ha TpaKHK H TpaKHTe. T. 1. C , A H
„ M a p H H / I P H H O B " , 1981
H T T II H3Bopn 3a HCTopHHTa Ha TpaKiia H TpaKHTe. T. 2. C , HHCTHTyT
no TpaKonorHa, A H „MapHH /JPHHOB", 2002
HO-BAH HHCTHTyT 3a (ponKjiop KLM EburapcKa aKa/teMHH Ha HayKHTe
KH3 KPATKAfl HYBAUlCKAit 3HIlHKJI0nEflH>I. He6oKCapbI, H3fl. Hy-
BamcKHH rocyflapcTBeHHbiii HHCTHTyT ryMaHHTapHbix HayK
(HTHTH), TyBamcKoe KHH)KHoe H3AaTejibCTBO, 2001
Hncc CTOHH B. Hapo^HH necHH OT CaMOKOB H CaMOKOBCKo. C , A H
„MapHHflpHHOB", 1975
C6HY C6opHHK 3a HapoflHH yMOTBopeHHH H Hapoflonnc
57. Mediaeval "town of the dead" by the village of Dargavs, CHB KAHYJIEB HB. HapoAHH necHH OT CeBeporaTOHHa BtjirapHa.
Ossetia (Northern Caucasus) T. 2. CotpHH, A H „MapHH ,H,PHHOB", 1973
(http://gallery.darial-online.ru/01 .shtml) TB CTOHH, B . 1 9 2 8 . O T THMOK no B n T a . H 3 ^ . C o c p H a , M H H H C T e p -
CTBOTO Ha HapoflHOTo npocBemeHHe
TM KAIJAPOB T . H . , /JEHEB f(. (ebcraBHTejiH). H 3 B o p n 3a c r a p a T a
HCTopHH H reorparhna Ha TpaKHfl H MaKe^oHHfl. C , A H
„ M a p n H TJPHHOB", 1 9 4 9
HTHTH HyBamcKHH rocyziapcTBeHHbiH HHCTHTyT ryMaHHTapHbix HayK
HHA HyBauiKa HauHOHajiHa aKa^eMHa
C.E.D. Cassell's English Dictionary. London. Cassell & Co. Ltd., 1964.
0 . T. D. Oxford Talking Dictionary. The Learning Company, Inc. Copyright
© 1998

•' I

1,1 l l

230
231

i
 f

BAAMAEBA T. K). 2000. My3biKajibHbiH HHCTpyMeHT B KajiMbmKOH KynbType. -

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253
252
 123, 124, 126, 129, 133, 137, 138, 107,110,111, 118,139,142, 143,144, hen 175,176, 199 Michael/Mihail, Archangel 160,167,
139,140, 142, 144, 145, 146, 151, 145,149,151,152,156,159,161,166, Hermes 97, 98, 102 Mongol 11-25, 30-49, 52, 53, 68, 69, 77,
156, 157,161,162,163,165,173-181, 169,173,175,179,180,189,193,198 horse/horses 12, 20, 36, 39, 44, 45, 48, 78, 80, 83, 84, 97, 113,121, 122, 126,
183, 185, 189, 197, 200 fish 33, 36, 39, 49, 57, 60, 106, 147 60, 63, 105, 135, 144, 148, 151, 152, 127,128,131,133,164,169,174,183,
Chopa 155, 156, 158, 175 flight, shaman's 38, 42, 63, 66, 69, 70, 153, 56, 162, 176, 177, 198, 201 185,188
Christian/Christianity 13, 25, 27, 28, 29, 94, 108,116,118,189, 190,201 horse-staves/horse sticks 45 moon 19, 20, 21, 35, 60, 188, 193, 194,
88, 109, 110, 111, 116, 117, 130, 131, frog 60 hut, (shaman's) 15, 18, 22, 34, 37,46, 195, 201
138,139,141,145,146,147,149,154, funeral/burial 23,46,48,82,104,118,133, 47, 68, 140, 166 Mother Earth 2 1 , 2 2 , 3 7 , 6 0
155,160,167,172,173,175,176,185, 158,162,163,167,170,171,172,173,
Muses/Music (i.e. from the Muses) 15,99,
191,202 176,177,178,179,180,181,198,202 I
100, 101, 106, 139
Chuvash/Chuvashia 25,92,119,115,125, second/true 162, 163, 170
126,127,128,130,131,132,133,134, Iliya/Elijah 144,156, 158,159
initiation 31, 32, 33, 34, 38, 42, 43, 61, Musical instruments
128,139,141,143 144,145,147-167, aulos 102, 103, 104,106,110
169-177,180,181,182,185,189,190, 62, 80, 95, 96, 97, 110, 114, 118, 120,
G bells 44, 45, 46, 51, 61, 67, 104, 113,
191, 192, 193,195-202 177, 181, 191, 193, 198
giant 142, 143, 144, 145, 147, 159, 172, Islam 13, 23, 25, 28, 29, 79, 122, 124, 201, 202
cloak/gown, shaman's 24, 3 5 , 4 3 , 4 4 , 4 5
183 125,126,128,129,130,131,138,139, cithara 99, 101, 102, 105, 106, 108
Confucius/Confucianism 16,136
God 142,145,147,153,161,165,167,171, drum 19, 30, 34, 35, 38, 39, 43, 44, 45,
costume, shaman's 43, 44, 45, 46, 47,
bull 33, 90, 194 177,202 46, 50-70, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 102,
54, 63, 67, 80, 83, 98
sky 15, 17, 37, 141, 142, 144, 147, 105, 106,107,110,114,119,120,188,
148, 158, 175, 184, 186, 193, 194 K 199, 201, 202
D Sun/solar 59, 90, 110, 135,142, 143, drumstick/drum rattle 52, 61, 62, 64,66,
dance 15, 19, 34, 38, 62, 66, 67, 74, 80, 146,154,158,159,174,175,183,194, kam/kamlanie 30, 34, 43, 60, 63, 67, 105, 184, 202
81, 99, 100, 113, 116, 117, 118, 145, 195, 198 82, 107, 113, 134, 192 flute 79, 101, 102, 103, 104, 110, 129
163, 166, 201 underworld 19, 20, 61, 91, 95, 96, 97, Karachay 123, 124, 133, 134, 138, 142, gadulka 50, 108, 114
Dionysos 89, 90, 95, 97, 99, 102, 104 167 143,145,146,147,154,155,158, 159, gaida/hagpipes 69,91,104,108,119,202,
Sabazios 89, 90, 97, 104, 105, 110, goose/geese 36,44,60,66, 74,153,175, 163, 164, 167, 173, 178, 182 203
188 katabasis 95, 96, 97, 108 gusla 114
111
Zagreus 95,97, 110 graveyard 116, 118, 144, 154, 160, 161, Kiremet/Keremet 144, 147, 148, 149, Jaw's harp/khomus 62, 78
dragon 117,144,156,159,176,190,197, 165,166,167,169,170,171,173,175, 150,151,152,153,154,156,157,161, kantele 106, 107, 108
198, 199, 204 176, 189, 196, 204 170,171,175,181,192,196,197,198 kaval 114
head of the graveyard 166,172 lyre 51, 63, 101, 105,106,107, 108,178
tombstone 48,158,160,161,162,163, salpinx 101
E
164,166,167,169,170,171,173,176 tambourine 51, 52, 83
Lamaism 23, 132
eagle 33, 36, 49, 69, yupa/yuba 160, 161, 162, 163, 166, tupan 50, 51, 91, 104, 105, 110, 114,
lamenting/laments 70,100,104,115,133, 119,201,202
elk 36, 44, 55, 63, 66, 105 170, 173, 176 171
Erleg Khan 19, 39, 60, 97 Great Mother Goddess, the 84, 89, 90, tympanon/tympanum 104, 105
Lazaritsa/lazarka 116,117,118,156,176 untugun 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55
Eurydice 95, 96, 97 92,98, 102, 110, 111, 198
Lower World 19, 20, 33, 38, 39, 40, 44,
Greece/Greek, ancient 84,85,86,87,89,
59, 60, 62, 63, 65, 69, 97, 118, 143, N
90, 94, 95, 96, 99, 100, 101, 103, 105,
147, 152, 159, 169, 174, 175, 198,
106,108,109,110, 111, 112,119,146, narcotic 41
149, 182 Nart, Nart Sagas 124,142,143,145,150,
Faith, "Yellow" 24 M
Father Sky/Heaven 19, 20,22, 37, 60,73 156, 158,175
H Manichaeism/Manichaean 24,25,83 nestinarstvo/nestinar 90, 91, 108, 110,
Finno-Ugrians/Finno-Ugric 11, 20, 90,
Hellas/Hellenic 84, 85, 88,89,92,93,94, mask, (shamans) 45, 46, 113, 201 111,118,140,193
106,126,131,132,133,139,149,187
fire 18,19,22, 37,47,49, 63, 82, 89,90, 95, 97, 98, 102, 105, 106, 110, 182

254 255
o N i k o l a / N i c h o l a s 155, 156, 157, Mongolian 68,69,77,78, 80
158,160, 174, 175 mythical 77
oak/oak-tree 106, 148, 152, 157, 160, Tangra 134,137,141,145,150,158,168,
Petka/Petko 160, 174, 175, 176 of bagsy/baksa/baxsi 79, 80, 115
170, 171, 173, 175, 181 181, 182, 183, 184, 185,195
sea 12, 18, 21, 38, 53, 84, 122, 123, 129, of spirits 6 5 , 6 8 , 6 9 , 7 4
Ob-Ugrians/Ob-Ugric 25, 30,44, 82,83, Taoism 2 4 , 2 5 , 2 6
137,142,156,158,164,165,174,175, Orpheus' 106,
91, 107, 174 Tatars/Tatar/Tatarstan 25, 117, 118, 119,
177,178,182 shaman's/shamanic 62,64,65,72,73,
Orpheus 90, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 123,125-134,139,145,148,149,151,
serpent 92, 110, 193, 198,204 74, 75, 77, 78, 100
103, 104, 106, 107 160,161,162,173,185,191, 192, 193,
shaman/shamans Siberian 64, 71, 73, 74, 75, 77, 78, 83
Orphic/Orphism 89, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 195
black 24, 31, 3 5 , 4 4 , 4 9 , 6 3 , 193 without words/wordless 64,68,69
9 7 , 9 8 , 9 9 , 1 0 3 , 105,109, 110, 111 Teiri 115, 123, 134, 138, 142, 143, 144,
bull 62 soul journey, shaman's 30, 34, 36, 37,
Hellenic 94,95 145,146,148,151,153,154,155,156,
great 35, 37, 38, 49 38, 40, 41, 42, 46, 63, 94, 109, 118,
Thracian 88, 89, 90, 94, 95, 110 157,158,170,171,174,175,182,183,
hereditary 31, 33, 34, 35, 37, 43, 189 120, 188, 190, 195
Orphic mysteries 90, 98, 102 184,185,195
predecessor 30,48 soul/souls 16, 18, 22, 24, 25, 26, 30, 31,
Thamyris 99, 100, 101, 177
weak 32, 36, 37, 43, 78 33-46, 60, 62, 70, 75, 93, 94, 95, 96,
Thracian/Thracians 112, 119, 120, 136,
white 24, 3 1 , 3 5 , 4 4 , 4 9 , 6 3 , 193 97, 107, 118, 134, 143, 146, 147, 149,
140,143,147,172,177,180,181,182,
yellow 24 159,165,166,167,169,170,171,174,
priest 184, 185,191, 195,198
shamaness 22, 32, 33, 58, 67, 78 176, 180, 188, 189, 192, 195, 204
askal/aksakal 168, 193, 195 Thrake 84, 191
Shoitan/Shuitan 147,196 spirit/spirits 16-25, 30-49, 62-82, 87, 90,
old man/men 18, 65, 82, 83, 153, 157, tombs/tombstones 101, 158, 160, 161,
Siberia/ Siberian 11-48,51-54,60-68,70- 91, 92, 114, 135, 137, 150, 161, 165,
166, 197 162,163,164,166,167,169,170,171,
78,80-88,91,92,93,96,97,102,103, 174,, 175, 189, 190, 193, 200, 202,
tOMag/iOMgd /uoMga 193, 196, 197, 173, 176, 177, 178,179,180
105,107,109,110,113,114,119,124, 204, 205
201 Torum 18, 24, 69, 186
127,132,133,134,150,180,184,187, ancestor 31,35,37,39,54,60,134,171
tree, sacred 20, 21, 34, 45, 48, 80, 135,
190, 202 animal double/animal mother 39,199
R 138,140,148,149,151,152,153,154,
sickness, shaman's 31,32 evil 18, 19, 20, 21, 35, 40, 42, 45, 46,
168, 170, 171, 172, 181, 196
reindeer 12, 18, 20, 21,22, 34,44,45,46, sieve 51, 194, 201, 202 4 7 , 4 9 , 6 6 , 8 1 , 155, 172,173,196
Tree, the World 23, 37, 38, 39, 59, 60,
57, 60, 61, 62, 67, 68, 69, 76, 81, 91, singing 34,39,41,62,64-81,95,99,100, forest 21, 33, 77
80, 149, 151,159, 171, 183,205
92, 105, 108, 153, 191 103,104,106,108,116-120,130,161, guardian 21,25,34,35,48, 61,65,77,
tree/trees (shaman's) 34,45
Rhes/Rhesos 92, 99, 100 202 81,82
Tiira 141, 144, 145, 147, 148, 151, 152,
River, the World 38, 159, 174, 205 throat-singing 68,69,77 helper 25, 35, 36, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43,
153,154,155,156,160,161,170,171,
rod/staff, shaman's 45, 46, 63 sky 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 34, 36, 38,45, 44, 45, 46, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66,
172,173,174,175,182,183,184,185,
54, 59, 60, 67, 83, 92, 97, 102, 135, 68,69,93, 114, 134,187
196, 198,203
142,143,144,145,150,156,158,159, nuptial 48,63
Turks/Turkic 18,20
169,172,175,183,184,185,194,195 of fire 22
sacrifice, sacrificial 18, 20, 21, 22, 32, sledge, shaman's 38, 44, 46, 68 ongon 37, 40, 44, 37, 82, 93, 190
U
33, 34, 37, 39, 40, 42, 74, 77, 79, 82, Son Sun, of the Great Mother Goddess sky 16, 18, 19, 20, 35, 36,49,54, 183
83, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, 104, 117, 84, 89, 90, 92, 97, 98, 105, 110, 198 tengri/tenger 16, 17, 18, 19, 35, 36 Ulgen 19
118,119,135,138,141,143,144,147, Song/songs/melody 26,30,33,48,62,64, stars 20, 59,60, 116, 142,145, 146,159, Umai 22, 39, 135
148,149,151,152,153,154,155,157, 66, 70, 71, 74, 76, 77, 100, 103, 106, 197,198 Upper World 18, 19, 20, 31, 33, 35, 37,
158.160.161.168.169.170.173.174, 113,114,115,116,117,118,120,124, Strandja 91, 92, 104, 111, 115, 119,170, 38, 39, 44, 45, 59, 60, 62, 63, 65, 69,
175,176,181,183,185,191,192,196, 130,131,132,135,136,139,142,143, 174, 178, 198, 202 80, 91, 118, 147, 152, 154, 159, 165,
199 144,145,148,154,155 156,157,158, sun 18, 19, 20, 25, 45, 59, 60, 88, 89, 90, 168, 169,183, 198, 204
Saint/Saints 25, 79, 90, 91, 92, 111, 116, 161,166,174,175,176,198,200,204 91, 116, 142, 145, 146, 150, 152, 158, Urals/Uralic 11, 21, 25, 30, 59, 69, 77,
119.144.155.158.159.167.174.175, bear 66, 70, 73, 74, 77, 83 171, 174, 177, 183,194,198 132,187
181, 190, 195, 198, 199, 200 diaphonic 95, 114, 117, 118
Dimitar/Demetrius 160,162 individual/personal 75,76,100
Lazar/Lazarus 118 invocation 30,33,35,41,64,65,73,83

256 257

I
 ^C^liU

192, 193, 196, 197, 201, 202

tdltos/tdltoses 187,188,189,191,195,
veshteri/witches 101, 158, 160, 161, 162, 199, 201, 203
163, 164, 166, 167, 169, 170, 171, 173,
176,177,178,179,187,188,189,190- W
202
bayachka/bayachki 190,193 war, shamanic 43
benandanti 188, 189, 199, 200 whale 21, 61, 87, 92
healers 191,192,193,197,202 wolf/wolf's 21, 25, 33, 36, 61, 81, 87,
magicians/sorcerers 189, 191, 197, 92, 115, 188
202, 203
mamnitsi/zhitomamnitsi 189, 193,
198, 199, 200, 201 Zalmoxis 93,94, 95,97
medicine-men/women 37, 190, 191, Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrian 25,28,

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